Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MAGAZINE
ADVERTISING
WORKS
CONTENTS
23. Sales uplift and ROI: ‘Sales Uncovered’ 56
– How the analysis was done 56
– 11.6% uplift in sales value 56
– 18.1% uplift in sales volume 57
– Uplift in market share 57
– Winning new customers: brand penetration & weight of purchase 57
– ROI: return on investment of £2.77 58
– Summary 58
– ‘Proof of Performance’ I & II 58
24. More case history evidence that magazine advertising sells 59
– UK evidence 59
– International evidence 59
– FIPP (International Federation of the Periodical Press) 59
(D) CHANNEL PLANNING: POSITIONING MAGAZINES WITHIN THE TOTAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE 60
REFERENCES 106
INDEX 111
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 114
INTRODUCTION
of surveys to build into my review. Moreover I have
summarised most of them within a handful guy@consterdine.com
of paragraphs or less. This hardly does justice to them www.consterdine.com
as individual surveys but in all cases a reference
is given so that readers can examine the research August 2005
in more detail if desired, and sometimes a link to a
website can be provided.
• The magazine medium’s essential strength lies in of information and ideas. When a magazine strikes
the active way in which readers choose and use a chord it can reinforce the reader’s own self-image.
their magazines. Magazines are an active medium, This creates a particularly powerful and trusting
with the reader in control. relationship.
• Since different categories of magazine fulfil • Readers give commitment to their magazines. The
different needs they work in different ways, which time spent reading is substantial, and the copies are
are well adapted to their readers’ requirements. read thoroughly. Copies tend to be read repeatedly,
Similarly, within categories there are vital often picked up more than once during a day and
distinctions of character between individual titles, on more than one day. More than 90% of all pages
giving each title its own unique positioning. are opened by the typical reader. The average page
• Readers become deeply engaged with their in a paid-for magazine is looked at 2.5 times by
magazines. As a result a strong relationship, a bond each reader.
of trust, grows up between the reader and his or • Readers have their own repertoire of magazines to
her chosen magazines. Reading a favourite meet different needs and moods. Matching the
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
magazine is like talking with a friend. mood and the magazine reinforces the values of
• A reader’s identification with an engaging the personal relationship and ensures that reading
magazine can go well beyond the simple provision takes place in a highly receptive frame of mind.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
research. • Magazines and the internet work well together.
• Publishers need to spell out how magazines fit into Information in magazines sometimes leads readers
the mix of channels, defining the unique to obtain more details on the internet, and they
contribution of magazines. may then purchase something as a result of
• In comparisons between six media – magazines, exposure to both media.
newspapers, newspaper supplements, TV, radio and • Customer magazines improve the brand image of
websites – magazines lead in terms of providing the commissioning companies, and boost
interesting information and being tailored to users’ consumer spending on the brand by about 8%.
needs. • Sales promotions work better when accompanied
• Advertising in magazines is seen more positively by magazine advertising. However promotions are
than advertising in other media. not necessarily profitable at all.
• Magazines, followed by websites, are the most
action-oriented of the six media.
TV-plus-magazines campaigns out-perform the TV- • Television and magazine advertisements should run
only strategy in selling products. together rather than at different times, so the
• The improved performance from a mixed-media messages can interact for maximum synergy.
campaign is due to a combination of better • In times of recession, it pays to maintain or even
targeting (especially among the increase one’s advertising instead of cutting it.
lighter/younger/upmarket segments) and more
powerful communication than television alone can This report has its own website for providing updates
deliver. and new research, and more detailed information:
• The 2004 NRS Readership Accumulation Survey www.hmaw.net
The strength of magazines begins with the fact that The Henley Centre [2] has identified nine basic media
people have strong interests and needs, and these needs, split into two main classes: informational needs
interests vary from person to person. and cultural needs. The nine are:
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order of size, they were labelled: • Self-enhancement: bettering ourselves, self-
Accomplished flower gardener enhancement, knowledge for its own sake or for
Motoring ** * * * **
Ent/listings *** *
Erotic * * * * ***
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Womens ** * * ** * *** ** **
Note that no magazines fulfil the 'Default' function. No- This chart underlines a vital point in a simple way:
one reads a magazine because it is already 'on' - different kinds of magazine fulfil different needs and
magazines are only read when someone makes a therefore work in different ways. The implication is that
deliberate personal choice. the readers who choose a given type of magazine find
that they develop a relationship with it.
A separate study in 2004 by the Henley Centre, scale: personal, requiring active use, and representing
‘Planning For Consumer Change’ [4] – summarised in choice. The reader is in control. Favourite magazines
PPA’s report ‘Delivering Engagement’ [5] - approached become part of the personal networks of trust. Other
the topic from a different direction. People have become media are placed further out from the centre, and the
so overloaded with media exposure and information more they represent public, passive, choice-less
bombardment that it is no longer sufficient for a exposure, the further out they are – the more distant
medium or an advertisement to win consumers’ from consumers’ own world, and the more difficult to
attention: it is necessary to win their active involvement attract trust and engagement
and truly engage them. The Henley Centre concluded
that magazines have the characteristics to achieve this
engagement in four ways: trust, support, status and
participation.
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increasingly putting their faith in their closest, most
immediate networks of family and friends. Trust resides
The emergence of the internet, mobile phones, texting the editing function which magazines can provide –
and other new digital media has raised consumers’ reviewing a topic and suggesting avenues for further
expectations of all the media they use. A new role for exploration - is a very valuable one. Magazines’ own
magazines is to encourage participation and act as a websites can be a useful part of such referrals, but in
bridge to interactivity. most cases they won’t be the main online sources.
The new media have changed our relationship with Magazines are in an excellent position to do this
information and communication. Individuals now have a because of the characteristics of print: the readers are
more ambitious conception of what they can discover still in control of what they read.
The “Magazine Reader Experience Study” of 2003 [7, 8] personal timeout’ ranks third, and thus is more
made an ambitious investigation of the emotional and important than for men for whom it ranks seventh. ‘I
other experiences which drive magazine reading. It was feel good when I read it’ moves up to fifth for women.
conducted in the USA by the Media Management For men, ‘I learn things first here’ rises to fifth.
Center at Northwestern University, and commissioned
by Magazine Publishers of America and the American Each of the 39 reader experiences is a constellation of
Society of Magazine Editors. subjective ideas in consumers’ minds. To illustrate, ‘I get
value for my time and money’ is made up of these concepts:
Readers’ experiences and motivations were explored in
large-scale qualitative research, and then structured and
evaluated in two stages of quantitative research. The
result was 220 variables, which were grouped into 39
drivers of magazine reading. The table shows the most
powerful 20 of these 39 among all adults.
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feel they make them better informed and smarter.
Magazines are relaxing, encourage one to be reflective,
For the full list of the 39 reader experiences, and all the
variables making up each experience, visit
www.magazine.org
The variety and richness of experiences which motivate emphasises the depth of engagement which readers
consumers to read magazines is impressive. The survey feel towards the titles they choose to read.
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The important point that different kinds of magazine A very different ranking emerged for the contrasting
work in different ways has been brought out by many statement “I have learned a lot from this magazine”:
surveys - among them the “Media Values” survey
conducted by RSL-Research Services Ltd and published Gardening 92% agreed
by IPC Magazines [9]. General weeklies 91%
Dieting and slimming 88%
“Media Values” asked a sample of 1808 adults aged Nature/animals 88%
15-64 whether they agreed or disagreed with a series of Men’s style magazines 84%
statements as applied to each of 26 categories of General women’s monthlies 82%
magazine. Fishing/angling 82%
Comparing two of the statements makes the point. One The first list comprises magazines whose function
statement was “I read this magazine as a special treat”. includes providing material with which one might curl
The magazine categories whose readers agreed most up for a treat, while the second list gives magazines
with this statement were: whose function is substantially different - geared more
towards information-provision. Only general weeklies
Young women’s monthlies 75% agreed appear in both lists. The full range of attitude
Fashion beauty & hair monthlies 74% statements brings home how very different the various
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House & home monthlies 66% categories of magazine are. They are used in different
Home & family monthlies 65% ways, for different purposes. They are very well adapted
There are differences not only between main categories [11], in which 677 in-home interviews were carried out
of magazine but also between individual titles within a among ABC1 women aged 20-54 who were readers of
category. It is the subtle between-title variations of at least one of five magazines. The characters of the
character which make the relationship between the monthlies can best be summarised by the images
reader and the chosen magazine such a strong created by words and phrases which readers associated
personalised bond. with each title. The following list gives in rank order
those words and phrases cited by 35% or more of
A good illustration of this is the women’s weekly readers:
magazine sector. To people who do not read any of
these magazines they may seem rather similar, but to Magazine F: Good beauty ideas, good fashion
those who read them there are important distinctions to ideas, credible, useful advertising,
be made. This was brought out by a qualitative survey sex & relationships, intelligent.
called “Editorial Dynamics” conducted by Guidelines Magazine G: Prestigious, glamorous.
Market Research and published by Best magazine [10]. Magazine H: Glamorous, the fashion bible,
It interviewed regular readers of several of the leading prestigious, good fashion ideas,
women’s weeklies in order to establish the key trend setting, good beauty ideas.
differences between them, and the editorial strengths of Magazine I: Sex & relationships, good beauty
each. ideas, useful advertising, good
THE READER RELATIONSHIP
The editorial approach of each weekly was characterised The same is true in all sectors of consumer magazines,
by its regular readers as follows: and many more examples could be cited.
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Magazine A: Informative, friendly. The more graduated and subtle distinctions between
Magazine B: Caring, true to life. publications are made not so much in terms of the topics
Magazine C: Easy to read, young. covered but the tone of voice they convey. For example,
Magazine D: Varied, relaxed. for women’s magazines a division at the broadest level is
Magazine E: Entertaining, familiar. whether their prime orientation is towards others (e.g.
family, home, work) or towards ‘self’ (an informant in
These are substantial variations in the way the self- one discussion group commented “I want to feel I’m not
selected readers of these weeklies see themselves and just somebody’s mother, I’m a woman as well”); and in
their chosen titles. The women are different, they short what kind of emotional world they create. While
perceive the magazines as different, and accordingly some people want to live in a brisk world of independent
they choose the magazines that closely match their own views, others want publications that are less demanding,
selves. less aggressive, and more cosy, motherly, friendly,
domesticated and conservative. Or the same person at
In the same way, there are vital distinctions between different times may be in different moods, and thus feels
women’s fashion and style monthlies, even though they like reading a magazine to match the mood. The range
are often grouped together as though they were similar. of different psychological worlds offered by different
Evidence comes from a study carried out by RSGB and magazines means that readers can select ones which are
published by Vogue titled “Defining the Vogue Reader” exactly ‘me’.
The individuality and personality of each magazine The sponsors of MediaDNA also drew the conclusion
means that readers can readily feel a close relationship that the strength of media brands means that it is vital
with the particular magazines they choose to read. It is to take account of brand values when planning media
very similar to feeling close to a friend, and indeed in advertising schedules, rather than treating publications
qualitative research informants often use phrases such and programmes as commodities.
as “reading this is like talking to a friend”. And just as
one enjoys one’s own self when in the company of a SELECTING A MAGAZINE THAT EXPRESSES ONE’S
human friend because that friend reflects and brings out OWN SELF
one’s own personality, so it is with a favourite magazine.
The magazine reinforces the reader’s identity; the A reader can feel that one magazine is spot on while
magazine plays back to the reader the values with which another magazine, superficially similar, is not quite right,
he or she identifies. is not quite ‘me’.
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is that it conjures up a whole range of associations and interviews. Readers’ attitudes to their chosen magazine
ideas, which are primarily emotional. (As Robert Jones were summed up in this way:
The MediaDNA project, conducted during 2001-2004 2 When a magazine closely chimes in with this self-
by Millward Brown for a consortium of sponsors [13], image there is a high level of identification with the
has studied a very large number of media brands, chosen magazine. There is a feeling of ownership,
including leading magazines, newspapers, TV channels, that this is ‘my magazine’, an informed friend.
TV programmes and radio stations. The survey
demonstrated how these brands vary in three aspects: 3 There grows a sense that ‘My magazine helps me to
the brand’s positioning; users’ perceptions of its overall become the type of person I want to be’.
character; and its brand personality. Magazines are thus aspirational, enabling.
As examples of the findings from the first year’s 4 The reader feels ‘I therefore have a powerful
fieldwork, the five most extrovert media brands were trusting relationship with my magazine’.
FHM magazine, the three TV programmes Friends, The
Simpsons and Uncovered, and Capital FM radio station.
FHM was also the most playful brand. The five most This was expressed by one advertising agency in the
reliable brands were Radio Times followed by Sky News, following words: “the most impressive lesson emerging
TV Times, Countdown, and Classic FM. The five most from current research is that readers enjoy a very close
glamorous brands were all magazines: Vogue, Elle, relationship with magazines that they chose to read. It
Hello!, OK! and Cosmopolitan. Vogue was also the is a relationship that is impossible for other media to
most trend-setting brand. The most practical brand was replicate” [15].
What’s On TV magazine. The brand with the highest
proportion of users who say they can lose themselves in EXAMPLES OF CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS
it was Take A Break. This magazine was also the brand
seen as caring most for its users. Any in-depth survey of a single magazine or a small
group of magazines will reveal the nature of the
What these and many other examples are saying is that individuality of each title. Many examples could be cited.
magazines have distinct individual personality profiles
which readers recognise, and it is evident that people Vanity Fair serves as an illustration of a single title. Its
tend to match a publication’s personality to their own publisher Conde Nast felt that it was a difficult
personality. magazine for advertisers and agencies to decipher,
because unless you actually read the magazine you can’t
form an accurate idea of what type of person reads it.
time for reading it; a short snatched session is not a person moves from the group identity which typically
adequate. The front covers are strong, unpredictable dominates as an 11-12 year old to the fully individual
and a talking point. The subscribers believe that no identity which has established itself by the age of 17-18.
other magazine could adequately be a substitute for
Vanity Fair. Authorities in public service recognise the role of teen
magazines. The chairman of the Teenage Magazine
Thus the positioning is unique, and the relationship Arbitration Panel, Dr Fleur Fisher, said in 2004 [19]
between subscriber and magazine is close and mutually “Research suggests that teenagers are very aware of
demanding. The magazine asks for time and British society’s prevailing sexual attitudes. Most
commitment from the reader, and the reader expects a teenagers would like their parents to be more willing to
return of stimulation and quality journalism. discuss this aspect of growing up, but mutual
embarrassment is reported as a major hindrance. Likewise
A magazine, or a category of magazine, displaying a sex education in schools was judged to be inadequate,
particularly strong attitude, will not only attract those focusing on biology and ignoring their concerns about
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people who share that attitude but will also tend to shut sexual behaviour, sexually transmitted diseases, and
out people who do not share that attitude. Vanity Fair, relationships. But teen magazines are trusted by
for example, exhibits a marked international outlook, teenagers, they talk with them rather than sermonise at
and anyone without such an outlook is unlikely to find them. Teenagers like getting non-judgemental
the magazine strongly appealing. The knowledge of this anonymous advice as they struggle with the demands of
contributes to the feeling among readers of growing up. They seem to find teenage magazines’ light-
‘ownership’, intimacy and belonging, like membership hearted and fun tone, allied with accurate information, a
of an exclusive club. cheering beacon in the murky adult world of mixed
messages.” The Minister for Children, Young People &
A good example of this applying to a whole group of Families, Margaret Hodge, said “Teenage magazines are
magazines occurs in the youth market. Most youth seen as the best friend of young people through the roller
magazines are not only to be read by teenagers, but coaster years of their lives.”
they are also most definitely not to be read by parents!
For television weeklies their strong relationship with
EMAP’s “Youth Facts 4” survey, conducted by Millward their readers is based partly on their highly practical
Brown [17], emphasised that the reading of youth function. This was probed in a study for IPC tx by NOP
magazines by 11-19 year olds is a highly personal Solutions in November 2000 [20], which put an array of
experience. 60% of teenage magazines are read when agree/disagree statements to a panel of regular readers
the teenager is on his or her own, and 46% of of television weeklies. 88% agreed with the statement
magazines are read in the sanctuary of the bedroom. that “With so many TV channels nowadays, it helps to
However the company in which a teen magazine is read plan your viewing”. To do this, they turned to their TV
depends to some extent on its subject matter. Computer weeklies. 95% said their TV weekly helps them to plan
and football magazines, and social parts of girls their viewing. A similar percentage felt their TV
These figures describe a thorough and deep In addition the supplement is sometimes read by default
involvement with television weeklies, resting in part on because it is the only section left, when other family
the practical function but also from an absorption with members have grabbed the newspaper sections - and
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the other content besides the programme listings. this further distances reader and supplement.
magazine, and they are seen to be endorsed by the attempt to respond. The editors’ efforts to modify their
magazine. magazines in order to keep them at the forefront of
readers’ preferences are what might be called ‘editor
Through such contrasts we see some of the strengths of selection’.
the stand-alone paid-for magazines: they are actively
and deliberately chosen, they are wanted for their own Central to maintaining the close relationship between
sake, all the contents are likely to be of interest because readers and their chosen magazines is the editors’ ability
they reflect the magazine’s personality (i.e. the reader’s to keep the product fresh, so that the readers and what
personality), they have individuality, and the advertising they are offered remain in step. “Good magazines are
is relevant and consumed with interest. edited by their readers” as Pat Roberts Cairns, editor of
House Beautiful, expressed it [26]. Provided this
harmony is sustained, the relationship can deepen
through time.
The “Absorbing Media” survey, published in 2002 by Magazines are consumed at a more personal moment
PPA and conducted by NFO WorldGroup [27, 28], called of one’s time than are other media. The reading
the experience of reading magazines the ‘magazine experience is enjoyed both for its relaxing nature and for
moment’. its active input – dipping in, conscious scanning of each
page, re-reading – and is thus felt to be more engaging
NFO wrote “The magazine moment was described and of more merit than watching television and easier
warmly and positively by all respondents. It was than using the internet. Magazines are consumed and
treasured, as a break from work/housework/ absorbed in an order and at a pace which suits the
homework/etc, a totally different activity which individual.
transported the readers from their everyday situation…
[sometimes] into other people’s lives (as with Hello! Respondents remarked how magazines can be taken
magazine) or into a dream life of their own, for example where and when the reader wishes, are easy to pick up
by reading DIY or travel magazines. It was generally an and put down, and are available when there’s time for
intensely personal moment. The reader was utterly reading. NFO commented that the real meaning of this
absorbed in the magazine. Demands on one’s time portability of magazines “was that the magazine really
could be forgotten for a while. can be a friend, always to hand but never demanding,
just like a good friend should be”.
“The magazine moment often took place in relaxed
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places. Although the reader was often alone, in a Another aspect of the physicality of magazines is their
private place, this was not always the case. The tactile quality: some readers “really liked the feel of the
“Women with children in particular appreciated the fact Sometimes the magazine moment is something to be
that their relationship with magazines was like an shared rather than kept private. For instance two
unconditional friendship. The magazine would always respondents said:
be there when they had a moment, to talk to them for
as long as they could spare. “I’ll bring it in to work, and say in Bliss or Sugar
they’ve got questionnaires, you do your little
“Magazines ‘feed’ the reader, and respondents did questionnairey things with people and rate them,
‘devour’ their favourite magazines. They treasured and call out each others’ stars.”
buying them, taking them home to read as a treat,
combined with other relaxing pleasurable activities – “I find with magazines if I’ve found something
some even claimed to read their magazines in the bath. good in it or something funny in it, I’d have it in my
The satisfaction obtained was analogous to eating a bag and I’d say ‘Oh just look at this’.”
favourite food.”
Obviously enough, magazine choice is likely to be is the experience of being taken out of oneself.
modified as one moves through the life stages of
childhood, adolescence, early working years, early years • ‘Practical’: Reading with the intention of learning
of marriage or living together, the years of young something from the publication. This is not
children, older children, the empty-nest years after the necessarily deliberate information seeking; it also
children have left home, and finally the years of old age. embraces a general feeling that one may pick up
Again, within a much narrower time-span there are some useful ideas.
other changes that affect one’s repertoire of magazines,
even if only temporarily, such as moving house, A qualitative study by Communication Research Ltd for
redecorating, or thinking of changing the car. a women’s monthly [30] also drew this distinction
between escapist and practical reading. CRL reported
A study from G+J called “Perspectives of a Woman’s “Once the magazine has been purchased there is
Monthly Magazine” conducted by BMRB [29] additional pleasure to be gained from choosing the right
concluded that “a magazine is immensely versatile. The time and place to read it”. Four informants said of the
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way it speaks to readers and the way readers interpret monthly glossies:
the magazine is unique in every case... Each woman has
a repertoire of magazines and she has a different “I like to read them in the evening, when there’s
relationship with each title... to meet her different needs no-one else around. They are connected with the
and moods.” sort of total relaxation you can only get during the
evening.”
This highlights one of the values of the repertoire - there
is scope to choose the magazine that matches the mood “There’s lots to read so I’ll go to bed early, have a
of the moment. bath and make sure I’ve got time to myself.”
SELECTING FROM THE REPERTOIRE TO MATCH “I enjoy choosing it, picking through the
THE MOOD magazines. Then I read it when I’m in bed at night
or lying on the settee.”
Selecting a magazine to suit the mood ensures that the
issue is read in an appropriate frame of mind. Both the “I need time to sit and read and enjoy them. I don’t
editorial and the advertisements can be absorbed while want home and work around me all the time.”
the reader is in a relevant receptive mood, and thus they
have the maximum opportunity to make an impact. CRL found that when she’s seeing herself in her domestic
role it’s the practical magazines that a woman is likely to
A number of qualitative research studies have indicated select to read. Informants often commented about
that one basic divide in mood is between associating these magazines with having a break from
difficult/serious/heavy reading matter, representing work around the house. One of CRL’s informants said
effort and work, and easy/light/fun reading,
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readers control their own exposure, they can approach “Feature monthlies provide an in-depth read
their reading in either manner. which educates and informs as well as entertains.
“I’ve got two hours that I absolutely cherish - and “Traditional weeklies in contrast provide more
that’s my treat, a nice cup of coffee, quietly taking domestic and emotional support than practical aid.
my time, going through it.”
“Colour supplements are very different in role
The very experience of becoming immersed in a and this is reflected in both the physical and mental
publication can further mould the mood of a reader. A nature of the read. They are read very selectively
simple illustration is one woman’s remark in a group and passively with little intention of using the
discussion [30] that “I come out of reading information contained. They are consequently read
Cosmopolitan feeling a different person than when I for a short time and retained for only a short time.”
come out of reading Prima”.
SELECTING WITHIN AN INDIVIDUAL MAGAZINE TO
This was closely echoed in the qualitative stage of the MATCH THE MOOD
“Absorbing Media” research, conducted by NFO
Worldwide for PPA and published in 2002 [27]. Talking In matching their mood to their choice of what to read,
about women’s glossy monthlies, NFO wrote “The titles people can of course select not only a specific magazine
were more than simply magazines – they were brands. but also the kinds of item within a given magazine. As
By reading one of these specific brands, readers would Redwood expressed it [31], “Depending on mood, need
be willingly engaging with its essence, becoming a and context, we take from a magazine what we want,
Cosmo or Vogue person during the time that they were when we want it – whether it is ideas, information,
engaging with it… It was as if magazines played an advice, inspiration, escapism or relaxation. Our
inherent part in people’s psyche.” relationship with our favourite magazines will be one in
which we feel emotionally engaged and intellectually
challenged, but always on our own terms.”
HOW COPIES ARE OBTAINED buy a magazine for themselves or a member of their
household necessarily read it more intensely than
A magazine’s life often extends beyond the original people who see their copy in other ways. The National
buyer or buying household. Highly complex and Magazines/G+J survey “Women & Magazines: The
organised networks of further readers can exist, often Medium and the Message” [22] had something to say
involving the exchange of magazines on a regular basis. on this. “Purchase is not essential to the formation of a
The variety of ways in which people obtain their strong reader/magazine relationship. If reader
magazines is measured by the "National Readership identification with the brand’s values is strong then a
Survey" [32], and also by the "Quality of Reading close relationship with the magazine will develop. When
Survey" (QRS) published in 2000 by IPA, ISBA & PPA, secondary and tertiary readers receive a magazine on a
and conducted by Ipsos-RSL [33]. Naturally, different regular basis, the reader affiliation and commitment to
kinds of magazine, and in some cases individual titles, the brand is often as strong as the purchaser’s.”
tend to be acquired in different ways. There may be a
high proportion of copies delivered to the home, or WCRS commented that pass-on readers “are not of
being bought at newsagents, or being passed on from drastically less value” to advertisers than primary readers.
another household, or being read outside the home. As Pass-on readership “is real, ‘involved’ readership and
examples, here are profiles for three categories of largely not the reading of out-of-date copies in
magazine: hairdressers of media department mythology” [15].
THE READER RELATIONSHIP
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Gardening 68 80
Motorcycling 68 80
whether they “saw and read something on” the page, more than once.
“saw but just glanced at” it, or “didn’t see at all”.
A recent example of such surveys is “Don’t Talk To
The result was an average spread traffic score of 93% Strangers – the Quality of Magazine Reading Survey”,
for general and women’s weeklies and 92% for general published in 2002 by Magazine Publishers of Australia
and women’s monthlies. The average page traffic score and conducted by Roy Morgan Research [35]. It found
was virtually as high: that primary readers of magazines (i.e. subscribers or
purchasers) averaged 5.5 reading occasions of the
average issue of a weekly magazine, and 7.3 reading
Weeklies Monthlies occasions of an average monthly – though newspaper
% % magazine supplements only achieved 2.9 occasions.
Spread traffic 93 92 Among pass-on readers, weekly magazines averaged
Page traffic 91 90 3.0 reading occasions, monthlies averaged 2.6 and
Reading traffic 51 44 newspaper supplements averaged 2.3.
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Magazines are not just read once; frequently they are commissioned in 1984 by JICNARS [37], and run as
read on several occasions, and many pages (including three separate sub-panels by three different research
advertisements) are looked at repeatedly. This reflects companies (Communications Research Ltd, Research
one of the benefits of print media over television and Bureau Ltd, and AGB Cable & Viewdata). The panel ran
radio - the readers’ ability to control the timing of their for about four weeks during October and November
exposure. The desire to re-visit a magazine is an 1984.
expression of the relationship between reader and
magazine. There were countless instances of reading an issue of a
magazine on more than one day. A few examples will be
In picking up a magazine several times, each reading illuminating. The accompanying table shows extracts
may well cover only part of the total pages (except from the diaries of four panel members.
perhaps the first reading), but by the time the reader has
finished with the issue virtually all of the pages will have Mrs F is typical in having a number of instances of
been seen, some of them a number of times. reading a magazine over two or more days. The 3rd
November issue of Woman’s Weekly was someone else’s
The pattern of repeat reading is most easily observed copy; Mrs F began reading it for the first time on 16th
through a diary panel. IPC’s “Media Values” research November when it was nearly three weeks old. She read
included a diary panel of 250 adults [36] recruited from it in her own home. Next day she read the same issue
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the main Media Values survey. Panel members kept a again, at home. She also read the 10th November issue
diary of their magazine reading for two weeks. There of Woman’s Weekly on those two days. It looks as
Man aged 32, on a Sunday: reading of Arena Mr G read the household copy of Radio Times every day
10am 15 minutes, in lounge, no other activity. for seven consecutive days. He did the same with TV
Noon 15 minutes, in lounge, while listening to radio. Times. Every week there was this same pattern of
reading both magazines each day - obviously for
Man aged 28, on a Thursday: reading of Shoot planning his daily viewing.
9am 30 minutes, in lounge, while listening to radio.
Noon 10 minutes, in lounge, while eating. Mr E was an enthusiast of Reader’s Digest. He read the
4pm 10 minutes, in lounge, no other activity. October issue on 21st October; it was not the first time
8pm 15 minutes, in lounge, while watching TV. he’d read that issue, so he had evidently started reading
it before he began keeping his diary that day. He also
This totalled 65 minutes on one day. read that issue on four other days over the next two
weeks. It was a household copy of the magazine, and
This enables us to see examples of people reading a each time it was read at home. He acquired the
magazine on two, three or four separate occasions November issue and read it for the first time on 8th
within a single day, adding up to anything from 30 November, at home. He then read it on seven of the
minutes to more than an hour. In addition these issues next nine days.
may have been read on other days.
And so it goes on. The diaries are filled with instance
In order to look at the incidence of repeat reading of the after instance of magazine issues being read on more
same issues on different days I turned to an earlier than one day, sometimes two or three weeks apart,
diary panel and examined individual panel members’ besides other issues being read on one day only.
records through time. This was an experimental panel
3 Nov N F H
5 Nov N F H
Key: First time (i.e. is this the first time of reading this issue?): Y=Yes, N=No.
Whose copy: O=Own, F=Family/household copy, S= Someone else’s.
Where read: H=Own home, S=Somewhere else.
The diary did not attempt to measure the number of read. The question asked “How many times do you
pick-ups within a single day. However the 2000 "Quality usually pick up an issue of ……… by the time you've
of Reading Survey" [33] measured the average number finished with it?” The resulting averages are shown
of pick-ups, which reflect both the pick-ups within a below for a small selection of the magazine categories:
single day and the different days on which an issue was
The average copy of a paid-for magazine is picked up In practice the questions which measure PEX ask about
5.4 times by adults. TV listings weeklies understandably
A
the number of reading days in the last week/month/etc,
have the highest number of pick-ups because of their rather than the average week/month/etc; and the
reference use, but among the 31 categories of paid-for
Customer magazines:
TV listings 4.28 4.29 4.27
Women 1.64 1.17 1.84
Motoring 1.56 1.74 1.29
A
THE READER RELATIONSHIP
In case it might be thought that the repeat exposures and interest in buying) all gave the same answer:
have no value for advertisers, there are three classic compared with the control sample who saw none of the
studies carried out by Alfred Politz in the USA [38]. For test advertisements, the effect on the people who saw
each study, 12 advertisements were tested among three the test advertisements twice was roughly twice as great
matched samples of subscribers to a magazine. One as the effect on those who saw them once. That is, the
sample was not exposed to the test advertisements at additional effect of a second exposure in these
all, another was exposed to them once, and the third magazines was roughly the same as the effect of the
was exposed twice. Four different measures (brand first exposure. Repeat exposure matters.
familiarity, claim acceptance, rating of brand quality,
Not everyone who will read a specific issue of a Accumulation: dailies and weeklies
magazine will read it on the day it is published. Some
read it on publication day, some read it for the first time
on the day after publication, some on the next day, and
so on.
The purpose of the study was to enable users to The second curve is for TV weeklies. These magazines
distribute through time the average issue readership are published several days before the listed programmes
estimates published by the main NRS survey. Every start, so there is a slight S-shape to the curve because
A
magazine and newspaper measured by NRS was given most readers do not obtain or look at it until day 4 when
its own accumulation curve: that is, about 230 curves 60% have accumulated. After that, readership
were published. In addition, summary curves for 25 accumulates very fast as the viewing week covered by
publication groups are available. As examples of the the programme listings starts. There are negligible new
types of curves produced, the two accompanying readers of the issue after the final day of the listings.
graphs show curves for a selection of eight of the Again, this makes complete sense.
publication groups.
A
physical durability, the relatively timeless quality of the
editorial content, their ability to remain desirable to
We know from the JICNARS Reader Categorisation If an ad conveys meaning, the reader will look at it more
Study (discussed earlier in section 10) that the average closely. If not, the reader’s attention is likely to move on
reader of the average magazine has his or her eyes open to something else on the spread or another spread.
in front of more than 90% of the spreads. Thus nearly
all of the advertisements are at least glanced at in the A more detailed account of this process has been given
process of screening the magazine’s contents. by Wendy Gordon and Neil Swan of The Research
Business [43]. Their full account is summarised by an
Having opened the relevant spread, how do readers use inverted triangle.
the advertisements? And why doesn’t every ad get a
90% recall score in post-testing? They wrote “The diagram illustrates how people
B
If an ad can succeed in attracting attention - and every
single ad has this possibility open to it - the
Other accounts of the way magazine ads are used by Magazines can overcome this through interesting and
readers are given in section 21 dealing with pre-testing relevant creative work. On the chart, Campbell’s
advertisements. Condensed Soup is an example. Awareness of the
advertising is far higher than one would predict from
EFFECT OF INTEREST IN THE PRODUCT FIELD OR BRAND the modest interest in the soup market. This was
achieved through featuring two appetising recipes
It is well known that interest in or usage of a brand or describing ways of using soup as an ingredient in
product field is likely to increase the chance of an cooking.
advertisement being noticed, as many studies have
proved. An instance of this comes from IPC Magazines’ Even when the product field is low-interest, there is
“Ad Track” survey conducted by Millward Brown [44]. always a way of creating an ad that will be high-interest.
This survey is discussed in more detail later on, but for
the moment the following graph shows for 21 products And it is wise to check the proposed creative treatments
the relationship between interest in the product field by pre-testing the ads before running them. The topic of
and awareness of the advertising. Nearly all cases lie on pre-testing is discussed later.
or close to the straight-line diagonal; in other words,
WHAT AD NOTING MEASURES, AND ITS LIMITATIONS often because the product was not relevant. These
farmers had perceived the ads in order to decide not to
Selective perception, or ‘involvement’, which underlies study them. The breakdown of the scores for one of the
the previous chart on product field interest, also explains advertisements, for a herbicide for barley fields, was as
some of the findings produced by advertisement noting follows:
techniques. Information is sometimes sought on the
chances of an advertisement being seen if it is on a Originally claimed to have looked at ad 34%
right-hand page versus a left-hand page; in colour or Not originally claimed, but during follow-up
black and white; in a large size or a small size; at the question admitted had seen it 46%
front of the magazine versus the back of the magazine; Total claimed as seen 80%
and so on. Ad noting scores have long been offered as Unsure whether seen or not 3%
a way of providing some answers, though the technique Not claimed as seen, after follow-up question 17%
has its limitations. Total 100%
The method is based on showing a sample of readers a Although the ad noting score was only 34%, 80% of
copy of the issue they have read, and asking them to go informants had actually looked at the ad. Even this was
through the issue page by page and stating what they not the whole story because the spread traffic score was
THE ADVERTISER RELATIONSHIP
can remember having looked at previously. This can 82%, which is a better estimate of the proportion who
generate a spread traffic score (the percentage of had had their eyes open in front of the ad.
readers who looked at anything on the two-page
spread), a page traffic score (the percentage who looked Our understanding of ad noting scores was assisted by
at anything on the page) and an ad noting score (the a validation study by the Agencies Research
percentage who looked at the advertisement). Consortium, a group of about 30 advertising agencies
Averaging across all advertisements, or all within a given [46]. BMRB developed a technique called DEMOS (Direct
category, produces average ad noting scores. Eye Movement Observation System) in which
respondents waiting in a waiting room read a magazine
The level of the ad noting scores is dependent on the or newspaper on a lectern, while their eye movements
form of the question asked. A question which merely and the page that was opened were secretly filmed by
asks whether or not the reader looked at the two hidden cameras. By superimposing the film of eye
advertisement is likely to produce lower scores than a movements onto the film of the opened pages it was
question which distinguishes between (a) just glancing at possible to analyse exactly where on each page the eyes
it and moving on to something else, and (b) actually were directed. Once the filming was completed the
reading something in the ad. This is because most respondents were shown into another room and given
B
respondents can’t believe interviewers count casual a traffic and noting interview, using the same issue of
screening-out of advertisements as ‘looking at’ the ads, the publication they had been observed reading in the
so they don’t claim such glancing unless specifically waiting room. It was then possible to compare the
asked about it. It makes a big difference to the scores. reading claimed in this interview with the reading
The JICNARS “Reader Categorisation Study” [34] has observed from the films. There were some dramatic
already been cited, which distinguished between “saw differences, largely in the direction of under-claiming in
and read something” on the page and “saw but just the personal interview. The page traffic and ad noting
glanced at” the page; combining both types of exposure data were clearly not measuring exposure but
yielded average page traffic scores of 90% or more. communication of some sort. The scores were reflecting
interest and involvement in the subject matter of the
As far as advertisements are concerned, one of the few article or advertisement, as opposed to exposure to the
published examples which made this distinction relates page or ad (which was typically much higher).
to ads which appeared in an issue of Big Farm Weekly,
a publication for farmers [45]. Another reason for page traffic and ad noting scores
being under-estimates of exposure concerns the age of
In a traffic and noting study conducted by Gallup, the issue at the time the interview was carried out. If the
informants who failed to claim to have looked at interview is conducted too soon (e.g. a day or two after
selected advertisements were asked what they thought a magazine is published) the reader may not have
the reason for not looking was. This established that the finished reading the issue, and thus may correctly not
great majority of non-noters had in fact looked at the claim to have read a page which would actually be read
advertisements but had not originally claimed to have a little later. If the interview is conducted too late (e.g.
noted them because they had not felt interested in them two weeks after a weekly magazine is published) the
B
UK, but in 2004 Media Dynamics Inc compiled averages
based on studies conducted in the US over a number of Non-bleed, page black & white 100
content, such as a food product being advertised within This has been confirmed by the “Stop/watch” report
a cookery feature. This score is about recognition of the [49] published in 2005 by Belgium’s Medialogue
ad; there are further advantages in the way the ad is (described above).
B
advertisements. Ads with other ads close by achieve the page counts as exposure to the page or ad. The
more or less the same average score as ads that are readers think they are only to report the pages or ads
The affinity between readers and their chosen particular magazine’s personality and opinion. The
magazines, established in previous sections, greatly advertising can be absorbed as part of this opinion -
benefits advertisers. The powerful intimacy rubs off provided that it is close in character, style and brand
onto the advertising, awarding it an authority and values to the magazine’s personality. The closer the
trustworthiness. There is a positive effect on the advertisements are to the magazine’s ethos, the more
perception and absorption of the advertisements. The authority they achieve. Compatible advertising will carry
editorial content delivers a reader in the right frame of the endorsement of the magazine’s personality - a
mind to be receptive to the advertisers’ messages. An powerful benefit because of the way women identify
advertiser quoted by Reader’s Digest [51] was spot on with the magazine they have chosen. Thus when an
when he said “The editorial/reader relationship is a one- advertisement in a magazine resonates with the
to-one conversation, and in time it creates a bond of character of that magazine’s personality, it is capable of
trust, of belief, expectation and empathy. It is through achieving a synergy with the remaining content. When
the quality of this relationship that an aperture or this occurs, the advertising and editorial are mutually
opening to the reader’s mind and heart is created, reinforcing and promote maximum reader identification
through which we advertisers can establish with both advertisement as brand and magazine as
communication.” brand. A dual branding is thus achieved... The stronger
the reader’s affiliation with the magazine as a brand, the
THE ADVERTISER RELATIONSHIP
Because magazines can serve a niche market, readers of higher the level of endorsement that the advertising
such titles feel a sense of being a member of a ‘closed receives from the magazine’s personality.”
club’. This aspect of magazine reading means that the
advertisers know they are free be cheeky or adventurous It is illuminating to see why the research confirmed the
or whatever is appropriate for the particular niche, notion that it pays to position advertisements close to
because it is a private conversation among like-minded relevant editorial. The mood induced by reading the
people. editorial on a topic transfers beneficially to an
advertisement nearby on the same topic. It helps induce
The bond between readers and their chosen magazines involvement with the ad, and identification of the ad as
means advertisers can imply to readers that “not only do being ‘for me’. One of the informants said:
we have something to sell but we are also part of the
fantasy created by the magazine”, as Christine Walker “I think what you read heightens your interest in
expressed it at the 2002 PPA Conference [52]. She that particular subject. If I was reading this on
continued “There will always be an unquantifiable fashion design and that Miss Selfridge ad was in it,
quality about magazines. It’s what makes them special. because I’m already attuned to fashion design I
It’s about tying one’s brand into a monthly or weekly would be that much more aware. It’s the same as
B
statement about how people are living today – in the Sharwoods. If Sharwoods was in the middle of my
real world and in their imagination.” catering, in my recipe section, I might actually look
up the recipe that it’s advertising.”
HOW IT WORKS
A related statement was made by an informant in
This rub-off effect was investigated in the qualitative another survey, the AIM study [53]:
survey “Women & Magazines: The Medium & The
Message” published by National Magazines and G+J of "If there's an article on beauty products, the next
the UK [22]. It found that the way an advertisement is page might be an advert on a beauty product and
perceived in a magazine and the level of involvement it's almost an addition to the article. It's welcome
between the reader and the advertisement is likely to because it's informative."
depend on the reader’s expectations of advertisements
in the publication, the advertisement’s degree of ADVERTISING: ESSENTIAL AND ENJOYABLE
compatibility with the magazine as a brand, the
strength of the reader’s relationship with the magazine, The “Media Values” survey from IPC Magazines [9]
the advertisement’s positioning relative to editorial, the showed that advertisements in magazines are seen as
mode of reading, the intrinsic qualities of the essential and well liked.
advertisement, and the reader’s historical relationship
with the advertised product. Among adult readers of magazines of all types, 65%
agreed with the statement “The ads are an essential
The research report said “The reader approaches the part of this magazine”. There was naturally some
magazine in a frame of mind geared to absorbing that variation according to the type of magazine. Among
B
Another “Media Values” statement was “I enjoy the ads Housekeeping and Woman & Home, underlined the
in this magazine”. Again there was a high average score value to advertisers of the strong reader/magazine
The study showed that readers treat advertisements as 4 If a magazine succeeds in inspiring its readers it will
an integral part of their magazine, and that the readers’ give them new ideas for things to do and to buy.
trust in the magazine is extended to the advertisements
in it. 5 When brand affiliation, commitment, involvement
and inspiration are all achieved, the reader’s
Thus 69% agreed with the statement “I see reaction to the magazine’s contents is especially
advertisements in magazines as a source of powerful.
information”. 69% agreed with the statement “I trust
the advertisements in …(magazine)…”. 65% thought Another example, this time among a very specialised
“…(magazine)… only carries advertisements for kind of women’s domestic monthly – parenting
products they approve of”. Thus an endorsement of the magazines [56] – is described on the website
ads by the magazine is perceived to some extent. www.hmaw.net
Readers’ favourite women’s weekly magazines are “Beauty products and creams - you’re not going to
sources of advice, guidance and inspiration across a notice new ones anywhere but in a magazine.”
range of subjects. This trust is based on the assumption
that the magazine has no reason to be biased for or “I read that advertisement to see if I could get any
against any brand or point of view, and that they would ideas for Christmas presents. There were a couple
research any given area thoroughly and objectively. of things I thought would make nice presents.”
There was also a sense of continuity of editorial staff
which made the magazines seem reliable. This “If you think about it, that’s where we get most of
perception of magazines being totally scrupulous our information anyway.”
THE ADVERTISER RELATIONSHIP
examples of products they had bought as a direct result of the rub-off effect from magazines, 71% agreed that
of advertisements they had seen in magazines. “If you know about a product from reading about it,
Respondents said things like: that’s better than just seeing it on the shelves”.
“Without realising it you’re taking it in: ‘next time I The way a magazine can be seen to endorse a product
go to Sainsbury’s I must make sure I get some advertised in it was illustrated when as many as 31% of
plasters’ sort of thing.” the panel agreed with the statement “The products in
these weekly TV magazines are endorsed by the
“Often you see things you’ve never seen before, magazine”.
new products that come out like furniture polish
that smelt like pot pourri, I saw it in a magazine and
went and bought it.”
The way a reader interprets an advertisement can be others in a women’s weekly or monthly magazine
influenced by the specific publication in which it (according to which titles she normally read).
appears.
Some general conclusions were drawn from the results.
This important point has been proven in several Women’s magazines and colour supplements tended to
controlled experiments in which the same confer differing attributes upon the message of the
advertisement is shown in or attributed to different advertisements they contained. For example, women’s
publications, and reactions in each context are magazines were more likely to confer trustworthiness,
compared. The differences in the reactions have been quality, private information (rather than information for
dubbed ‘the presenter effect’. everyone), relevance (‘for me’), a connection with the
editorial, and relevant authority through endorsement
The early pioneer of this approach was Alan Smith, then of the magazine’s personality - and the latter aids reader
of IPC Magazines, who in 1972 reported on studies identification and involvement with the product. The
covering a number of advertisements [58]. One was for report stated “The key attribute and asset that
a vinyl floor covering made by Armstrong-Cork. The advertising in women’s magazines can bring is a frame
same advertisement was presented as appearing either of relevance to the reader - a feeling of ‘my sort of
in Ideal Home or in the Sunday Times Colour Magazine, brand’. In several cases here the advertised brand’s
to see whether these two environments influenced the perceived relevance is significantly greater to the reader
B
communication delivered by the advertising. Under the when seen in a magazine than a supplement.
pretext of discussing something else, informants were Conversely, if an advertisement is perceived as irrelevant
Magazines can target specific groups of people with than to others, and the relevant clusters can be targeted
precision and without wastage. The targeting can be for advertising by choosing the magazines that these
defined in terms of demographics, interests (e.g. clusters read.
sailing), or a variety of other ways.
A study from Conde Nast [11] indicates differences
Targeting can be achieved in terms of quite subtle between magazines in the attitudes of the readers they
variations in attitude, since individual magazines can be attract. ABC1 women readers of five women’s fashion
chosen which represent specific outlooks on life. The and style monthlies were interviewed. A photograph of
product to be advertised can be matched to the a clothes outfit was shown and readers were asked how
appropriate magazine, and thus the relevant audience. much they would expect to pay for it if it was advertised
For instance, within a group of magazines as in a particular magazine. On average, readers of one
superficially similar as the leading women’s weeklies, magazine expected the outfit to cost £159 if advertised
there are important editorial differences which attract in that magazine. Readers of magazine no. 2 expected
slightly different kinds of women - as illustrated by the it to cost £209 if advertised in magazine no. 2. Readers
“Editorial Dynamics” research [10] cited earlier. of magazine no. 3 thought it would be £223 if
advertised in magazine no. 3. The other two magazines
Targeting as applied to the market of 15-24 year olds fell within this range. The considerable variation from
THE ADVERTISER RELATIONSHIP
was explored by the ROAR project [59]. Seven media £159 to £223 arises from two factors: a presenter effect
companies including EMAP Consumer Magazines and differences in the outlook of the five types of
conducted quantitative and qualitative research from reader. Readers of magazine no. 3 may well be used to
1995 onwards under the name ROAR (Rights Of paying higher prices for clothes than readers of
Admission Reserved). It showed that there is no such magazine no. 1, and have a different outlook on pricing
thing as an ‘average’ 15-24 year old. Instead the sample of fashion outfits. That is, the magazines themselves are
was clustered into seven distinct groups, based on targeting subtly different kinds of reader.
answers to 42 attitude statements. The clusters were
given labels - New Modernists, Corporate Clubbers, As the Henley Centre’s report “Magazines into 2000”
Conservative Careerists, Moral Fibres, Blairites, Bill & points out [2], “the targeted nature of magazines
Ted, and Adolescent Angst – and each had its own set typically results in a close relationship between the
of values, motivations, and relationships with media and magazine and the reader and inspires a high degree of
brands. A given brand will appeal more to some clusters active reader involvement”.
B
Magazines’ ability to select particular target audiences than 5,000 readers, and in focus groups and individual
means there's the opportunity to enhance the depth interviews conducted by Robert Quayle. A central
communication by using different creative executions in finding was the importance of running creative
different types of publication. A ready example would treatments that were appropriate for the readership and
be a product for all age groups whose advertising the editorial environment. "Deliver the brand message
schedule includes teenagers’ magazines as well as titles by tailoring advertisement to magazine style; empathise
serving an older market. Running different with the readers - don't alienate or patronise them;
advertisements in the teen magazines could increase reflect the language of the audience or the lifestage."
their readers’ feeling that the product was truly for
them. Women readers' reactions to car advertisements are an
example. The AIM report said "The car category often
EMAP’s “Youth Facts 4“ survey [17] bears this out. A seems to be the reserve of men but results from AIM
range of advertisements from youth magazines was provide invaluable insights for car advertisers into how
shown to the sample of 11-19 year olds and their and how not to talk to women. Generally, readers felt
reactions assessed. The survey’s conclusion was that car ads didn't speak to them, either because they were
“the youth of the nineties are an extremely advertising alienating or patronising." One advertisement was
literate bunch. Having been bombarded by billions of particularly criticised in a focus group of Woman &
advertising messages since babyhood, they have Home readers. While the ad looked attractive, the copy
B
increasingly high standards. Hugely appreciative and not only failed to engage their interest, it actively
enthusiastic if an advertisement hits the right note, repelled them because of its male-oriented attitude.
In addition to standard display advertising, there are encouraging readers to interact with the ads. They
opportunities for using other creative formats within present something tactile that readers feel they just
magazines. Their ability to heighten impact and have to touch and explore. Post-it notes are arresting
interaction was described in the most comprehensive when they crop up in unexpected places such as
research to have investigated this area - a 2003 attached to an advertisement: because of the way
qualitative study called “Creative Format, Premium people normally use them in their everyday lives, they
Impact”. It was commissioned by PPA and conducted by say to the reader “This is something I must remember”.
Rachel Lawes of Lawes Consulting [61]. Conclusions
were drawn about a range of formats. SAMPLES, VOUCHERS AND GIFTS
DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS Samples, vouchers and gifts draw the reader closer to
the advertiser. Samples have the advantage over
Double page spreads are more than just bigger spaces. vouchers that the gratification is immediate. Gifts are
They present a chance to talk to readers on their own warmly received and were found to enhance the
without distraction, and to create a world of their own. reader’s perception of both the advertiser and the
The wide rectangular space is excellent for telling a magazine. However they must be appropriate – for the
story, including ads with a strong fantasy or aspirational reader and the magazine. This means making a gift as
THE ADVERTISER RELATIONSHIP
element. The content of the ad is seen as a bit special personal, flattering and meaningful as possible, rather
simply because of format. than something that could have been chosen for
anybody. (More information about samples is given
GATEFOLDS below.)
Gatefolds – where the page opens out and reveals two SPONSORSHIP AND SUPPLEMENTS
further pages beneath – take this a stage further. Their
physical nature makes them demand reader attention Sponsorship implies endorsement of the advertiser by
and interaction. The additional width makes this a the magazine – whether the sponsored item is a page of
particularly good way of getting across a story or the magazine, a pull-out supplement, a separate
narrative. One effective manner of presentation is to supplement, or any other element of the editorial
place the ‘hero’ brand in the centre, flanking it on each package. The phrase ‘sponsored by’ suggests something
side with supporting material; this draws on echoes of of editorial origin, subsequently supported by the
the traditional triptych format familiar in Western advertiser, whereas the phrase ‘in association with’
culture and associated with reverence. Butterfly suggests a more equal partnership between editor and
gatefolds – spreads where both pages are themselves advertiser. A particularly close approach to readers can
B
gatefolds – take the surprise element further, intriguing be made by sponsoring a regular feature in the
readers. magazine. It makes the brand seem an integral part of
the publication, tapping more deeply into the reader’s
PRINT TECHNOLOGY, TEXTURES AND SPECIAL PAPERS relationship with the magazine, and naturalising the
brand’s presence.
“Contemporary print and paper technology is the
modern art of magazines” declared Rachel Lawes. It is ADVERTISEMENT FEATURES (‘ADVERTORIALS’)
exciting, unpredictable and effective for engaging
audiences. Artists are using textures, optical illusions Advertisement features, or ‘advertorials’, which are
and objects in their work to make their point or elicit written in the house style of the host magazine, enable
reaction – presenting advertisers and creatives with a the advertiser to don the mantle and sport the values of
wealth of ideas to develop for their own use. Sensory the magazine. Rachel Lawes described how this
experience is enhanced by using unexpected materials. intimacy brings added credibility to the brand, while
Formats incorporating thermachromatic (causing readers appreciate the extra material for them to read.
images to change with heat) or lenticular (where the The objective should not be to trick readers into thinking
image appears to move) elements are two examples. it is an editorial feature – they are unlikely to be fooled
Different weights, qualities and textures of paper; for long and will resent being misled – but to let them
embossing; die cutting and unusual trimmed pages; understand this is an advertiser-related feature which
scratch ‘n’ sniff or ‘peel it’ fragrances; 3-D specs with offers extra value via information and/or entertainment.
which to view a 3-D advertisement; and other forms of
paper engineering – the research confirmed that these In addition to the “Creative Format, Premium Impact”
are all effective ways of delivering impact and research, other studies have investigated advertisement
B
the reaction is likely to be: Insert (loose or fixed) linked to ad 112
1 This is an article or feature about Product X. Reply card linked to ad 118
Loose inserts are perceived as an independent and door-drops which were seen as more intrusive and
advertising medium, and do not benefit from implied something of a personal affront. Attitudes to inserts
endorsement by the host magazine. While there are were also better than to SMS campaigns. As one
obviously many negative attitudes to inserts - centred respondent remarked, “a text message is a bit more
mainly around irrelevance, being unasked-for, and intrusive”. Something unwanted coming through your
questions of trust concerning the advertisers - there are letterbox or on your mobile phone is more of a violation
also some positives. Inserts are a familiar and accepted of your privacy than a loose insert in a magazine which
part of the media landscape, expected as part of the you have chosen to buy or read.
deal that consumers get when they buy magazines and
B
B
about an advertised product or service was about 50% Note that the three categories of magazine produce
more likely if the advertising had been seen in a rather different results, consistent with their different
magazine gave them purchasing ideas. magazine and only 11% disagreed. 90% of readers said
they read the ads in their magazine, and 83% agreed
Incidentally, this score of 66% was much better than the that the advertising keeps them informed of what’s
equivalent figure for other types of media. Only 49% of available. 62% declared that the advertising is useful in
viewers thought commercial television gave them ideas deciding what to buy or where to go. These are
of what to buy. Only 23% of newspaper readers impressive scores, especially given many people’s
thought newspapers gave them ideas of what to buy. aversion to admitting that they are influenced by
Commercial radio had a similar figure. For newspaper advertising.
colour supplements the figure was 39% - lower than
every category of paid-for magazine except nature PPA’s 2002 survey “Absorbing Media” [27, 28] added
magazines and puzzle magazines. new evidence about action prompted by magazines,
and showed that magazines are more action-oriented
IPC’s “Specialist Magazine Values” survey [68] added to than any other medium, with the internet ranking
the evidence that magazine ads prompt action. Action second. Details on this and other information about
arises from the magazines’ role as a vital source of action taken are given in section 30.
B
THE NEED FOR PRE-TESTING control the sequence of reading the ad, nor how long
the reader will devote to it. Years of experience in
The creative work is key: successful advertising depends researching press ads point to the fact that creatives
upon executions which are effective for the campaign’s nearly always assume that the ad will (a) be noticeable
objectives. Advertisers have every reason for wanting to (impactful) because of the creative treatment, and (b)
ensure that their ads communicate what is intended. will be comprehensible because of the juxtaposition of
Magazine publishers too must be concerned with the headline, visual, copy and so on. Very often this is simply
quality of the ads they carry. If a magazine not true.” Hence the need for pre-testing. It is an
advertisement is not very effective because of the important step in giving oneself the best chance of
creative work, it reduces the chance of that magazine maximising the effectiveness of the campaign. The
and indeed any magazine winning advertising from that potential payback (in terms of communication gain) can
client in the future. far outstrip the cost of the pre-test.
Assuming that the marketing objectives, and the For campaigns where magazines are to be used in
communications strategy for achieving these objectives, conjunction with television, it makes sense to pre-test
have been determined, some form of pre-testing of the not only the proposed advertisements for each medium
creative content is desirable - even if only through small- individually, but also to test them jointly to see how they
scale qualitative research which checks whether the ad interact with each other in providing enhanced
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does in fact convey what it is intended to communicate. communication.
Any execution which does not perform sufficiently well
The “Youth Facts 4” survey [17] also had something to Similar principles, with some adaptation, would apply to
say on this subject. In grabbing attention, ‘new’, other kinds of magazine, but what is unique is the
‘different’ or intriguing images held the most appeal for particular form of these Teen Commandments in order
teenagers. When the teenager goes on to probe for to appeal to the teenage market. It’s an illustration of
something of interest, if the product itself is not thought one of the advantages of magazines: provided an
relevant then entertainment value will do the job. advertiser uses a suitable interpretation of the
THE ADVERTISER RELATIONSHIP
Entertainment is in itself a sufficient reward for the campaign, a given type of magazine offers a very special
teenager’s investment of time in studying an ad. Having way in to its particular audience.
thus become involved in the ad the reader is in a
position to digest more detailed information, but the Youth Facts 4 and Ad Track have clearly demonstrated
details still need to prove rewarding. the active nature of a reader’s involvement with an ad,
a great strength of the medium. It means readers can
Youth Facts tested 18 advertisements quantitatively and take out of an ad everything they wish, for as long as
a larger selection qualitatively. This led to a general they wish - provided the creative execution persuades
prescription for creating advertising that appeals to them into it. Pre-testing is the way to ensure that it
teenagers. EMAP called it The Teen Commandments: does.
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ADVERTISING SELLS PRODUCTS
Ad Track [44] was an innovative, landmark survey which In previous work Millward Brown had found that
demonstrated that magazine advertising can generate: repeated exposures to the same print advertisement
could gradually diminish in their effect, because with
(a) marked increases in advertising awareness, and print ads - which can be held and studied for as long as
(b) movements in brand purchase consideration. the reader wishes - readers can take out the key
messages during the early exposures. The solution is to
WHAT ADTRACK DID introduce a new creative execution, thus refreshing the
stimulation given to readers. Millward Brown’s
Ad Track was a continuous tracking survey lasting 48 modelling of the Ad Track data took account of the
weeks from January to December 1994. IPC Magazines extent to which each magazine campaign introduced
commissioned Millward Brown to conduct 200 new creative treatments.
interviews per week, or nearly 10,000 interviews in
total, among women who had read a magazine in the RESULTS FOR AWARENESS
past year (about 90% of all women). 24 brands
advertising in magazines were tracked, and half of these The Awareness Index measures the percentage increase
were using television as well. A wide cross-section of in awareness per 100 gross rating points. Averaging
product fields were covered. across all the campaigns, magazine advertising was
creating an awareness score of 13% - exactly the same
ADVERTISING SELLS PRODUCTS
Two main questions were asked throughout the year: as the television advertising. So magazine ads are as
powerful as TV commercials for getting consumers to
1 Awareness of advertising in magazines (and television give attention and thought to brands. On top of this,
where used), for each brand. Awareness is worth the magazine exposures are generated at roughly half
measuring because it is evidence that some level of the cost of the TV exposures.
communication is getting through, but awareness is
not sufficient in itself. The actual question for To illustrate the data produced on individual campaigns,
magazines was “Thinking about magazines, have you the next chart shows the build in advertising awareness
seen any advertising for .... recently?” If the answer for Kellogg’s Common Sense Oat Bran Flakes, which
was Yes a follow-up question was “And have you seen used a mixture of weekly and monthly magazines and
.... advertised in magazines during the last few days?” three different creative treatments. The level of claimed
awareness is shown on the scale down the left and the
2 Purchase consideration. The wording was “Which box at the bottom shows the gross rating points over
of these would you ever consider buying either for the year. There is a clear uplift in awareness in April and
yourself or for others?” May which was then sustained over the year. The
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in purchase consideration, five were already running at
quite high levels and were therefore very hard to shift
We can proceed from awareness and purchase For each brand, purchases were analysed among the
consideration (previous section) to sales and return on exposed group and the non-exposed control group, for
investment. “Sales Uncovered” [71], published by PPA each week during the campaign period, and during an
in May 2005 and part of a longer project called equivalent pre-campaign period. Purchases during the
“Magazines Uncovered” [72], found that magazine campaign period were then compared with purchases
advertising was associated with an average sales uplift during the pre-campaign period, separately for the
of 11.6% and produced an impressive 12-month return exposed and non-exposed group. The analysis was
on investment (ROI) of £2.77. therefore based on tracking the purchases of the same
invidividuals (the exposed group, and the non-exposed
HOW THE ANALYSIS WAS DONE control group) through time. External events in the
marketplace applied to both groups, and any
The study was an analysis of TNS Superpanel sales differences in composition between the two groups
records and media exposure data. Superpanel’s 15,000 were constant through time.
homes record their take-home purchases via bar-code
readers and keypads, on a daily basis. The analysis Differences between the two groups in terms of sales lift
examined purchasing records during the period August (in the campaign period, compared with the pre-
2002 to February 2004. Panellists’ media exposure was campaign period) were therefore associated with
measured through a self-completion questionnaire exposure to magazine advertising.
ADVERTISING SELLS PRODUCTS
called mediaSPAN.
11.6% UPLIFT IN SALES VALUE
20 fmcg brands were selected for analysis according to
detailed criteria, including the requirement that Aggregating the results of all 20 brands, there was an
magazines accounted for at least 10% of the brand’s average sales increase of 10.0% among those not
total advertising expenditure. The 20 brands were those exposed to the magazine campaign – the increase being
which met the criteria and which spent the largest due to other activities than magazine advertising.
amounts on magazines. The cut-off point turned out to However among those exposed to the magazine
be a magazine expenditure of £325,000 or higher. campaign, the sales increase was 21.6%. Thus the
magazine advertising was associated with an extra
The NRS readership accumulation data were used for 11.6% increase in sales (in terms of value).
distributing across time, week by week, the exposures
generated by each magazine insertion. This meant that % increase in sales (£)
a more realistic comparison of week by week exposures
and purchases could be made, than in previous studies
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WINNING NEW CUSTOMERS: BRAND PENETRATION
AND WEIGHT OF PURCHASE
generated while the magazine advertising was running. • There was an uplift in market share (sales value) of 6.7%
For the 20 brands combined, the average ROI was a • The uplift in market share (sales volume) was 8.6%
creditable £1.79. This however is only part of the story, • Market penetration increased by an extra 8.5%
for the effect of advertising lasts far beyond the after exposure to magazine advertising
campaign period. The ROI across 12 months from the • Average weekly weight of purchase rose by an
start of the campaign is a more realistic assessment, and additional 1.6%
may be regarded as the medium-term ROI. • The medium term return on investment for
magazine advertising was £2.77 – at least
The 12-month ROI takes into account the repeat comparable with that of television advertising
purchasing of the brand from those buyers who were
persuaded by the magazine advertising to buy the Further conclusions from “Sales Uncovered” concerned
product during the campaign. This calculation resulted magazines’ share of the total advertising budget;
in a figure, across the 20 brands, of £2.77. That is, for magazines used in conjunction with sales promotions;
every £1 spent on magazine advertising, there were and magazines’ performance in mixed-media schedules.
additional sales of £2.77. These aspects are dealt with in later sections of this
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report.
To put it into context, magazines’ figure of £2.77 can be
set beside the figure of £2.33 for television advertising, “PROOF OF PERFORMANCE” I & II
also based on Superpanel data and calculated by TNS
[73]. Instructively, the 11.6% sales uplift shown by “Sales
Uncovered” was closely mirrored by PPA’s two earlier
ROI For Magazine And TV Advertising
studies using the TNS Superpanel, “Proof of
Performance” I & II [74, 75]. The first report was
published in 1997 and the second in 1998, and both
demonstrated that magazine advertising increased
short-term sales by 11%. A summary of both studies
can be found on www.hmaw.net
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• IPC Media’s 1998 collection of 19 case histories "Sales Scan" [81].
under the title ‘How Magazines Work’ [78]
The last few years have seen a progressive change in communication is a wider term which includes
media planning. Instead of focusing only on the promotions, sponsorship and so on, whereas advertising
traditional media such as television, magazines, is interpreted as being narrower.
newspapers, radio and outdoor, a much wider range of
channels of communication is being considered. This The talk is also of a ‘consumer-centric’ attitude, to
shift in perspective has been prompted by the arrival of emphasise that the starting point is the consumer and
new digital media – the internet, digital television and how she or he experiences all the communication
radio channels, emails, text messaging and so on. The channels. Of course, the old media planning that was
new media have elbowed traditional media into a fresh done for decades (as when I was an agency media
position in certain respects, forcing the old to adjust to group head) was also supposed to be consumer-centric,
the new. The old ways of thinking about media have but the term today is used to stress the fact of additional
been jolted, and in the process of embracing the new channels being brought into deliberate consideration.
media, the new outlook has expanded to take in other
CHANNEL PLANNING
long-established methods of communication which Thus the core image is of people shopping while
were traditionally outside the media planners’ sphere. surrounded by a vast array of brand experiences
The landscape has come to look different. swimming in their heads. These include the prompts
physically in front of them – the branded products
Thus the planning scene now includes brand themselves, the shelf-talkers, in-store promotions, and
experiences in a great variety of places: at the point of so forth – but also much more than this. They include
sale (such as promotions or product-tasting in emails, text messages, telemarketing, direct mail, books,
supermarkets, or advertising in showrooms), at the directories, conversations with friends, previous
point of consumption (e.g. branding on the cups in experience of the brands, etc - as well as the advertising
which your cappuccino is served, or advertising on beer seen on television, internet, cinema and posters, in
mats), sponsorship (sports events, television newspapers and magazines, and heard on radio. All
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programmes, magazine supplements, garden shows) these exposures leave some trace in consumers’ minds,
and even informal exposures such as word-of-mouth which may play a part in influencing brand choice at the
among friends or advice given by sales people. All of point of purchase. And marketers’ promotional activities
these are contact points between people and brands can be planned so as to affect (directly or indirectly) any
which the marketer can influence, sometimes directly of these contact points between people and brands.
and sometimes indirectly.
To do this, the pathways to purchase are being
The new perspective has brought about a change in researched with growing intensity. What are the
vocabulary. While the term ‘media’ is elastic enough to functional and emotional triggers which prompt a
embrace such things as sponsorship, point of sale decision to buy? What is the process of investigating,
promotion and text messaging, the term ‘channel’ is evaluating and locating products? How does the
favoured because it is a different word and thus decision-maker’s mindset change during the process?
symbolises the shift in emphasis. As far as the dictionary And which channels of communication impinge at each
is concerned, ‘media’ is exactly the same thing as stage? The answers are likely to be different for different
‘channels of communication’, but in current usage categories of product.
‘media planning’ and ‘channel planning’ carry different
symbolic overtones. So today one talks of consumer-centric media-neutral
planning of the channels of communication. For once, a
There are other shifts in outlook associated with channel change in vocabulary really is associated with a change
planning. The discipline talks of ‘media neutral’ in thinking. As Sheila Byfield of Mindshare has
assessment of all the channels, giving the non- expressed it [84], “we need to think of communication
conventional media an even chance against the opportunities as every point where people can
traditional ones. What is being planned is potentially meet brands”.
‘communication’ rather than ‘advertising’, since
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2002 to 4.3. In the 2004 Awards it accelerated to an
average of 6.7 channels [86]. There is a clear movement
CHANNEL PLANNING
towards using more channels of communication.
each individual medium works. From the perspective of fresh insights, but also to act as a hub into which other
channel planning, however, it is not good enough. currencies can be integrated. These will include the
Something needs to be done to create data that are National Readership Survey, BARB television data,
comparable across these media. JICREG regional newspaper readership, RAJAR radio
audiences, CAA cinema figures, POSTAR outdoor
Other problems are that many channels are not estimates, and a host of proprietary surveys. The output
measured at all, and for all media insufficient account is will represent a single-source media contact survey,
taken of qualitative factors affecting the nature of the covering a large number of communication channels.
exposures. The complex business of integrating these sources
(conducted by RSMB) will take more than six months.
Consequently the view is gaining ground that
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Other channels
Brand & company websites Internet advertising (e.g. banners)
Emails Mailings & letters
Examining products in-store Recommendations
Exhibitions & trade shows Reviews in the media
Free samples Special offers, coupons
Information from call-centres/helplines Sponsorship (events, teams)
Inserts in newspapers/magazines Text messages
In-store materials and displays TV direct sales
Interactive TV advertising TV programme sponsorship
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Compose allows subscribers to examine each channel in A simple illustration of what a single publication can do
CHANNEL PLANNING
terms of its traits. The six traits most strongly associated with to show magazines’ role among other media is provided
magazine advertising (‘very good’ or ‘quite good’ at) were: by IPC Media’s Now magazine. In the “Leisure Interests
Study” conducted in 2001 by Linda Jones & Partners
1. Giving you information or ideas about new brands [89], readers of Now were asked about usual sources of
2. Getting messages across if only seen once or twice health advice and beauty ideas, covering a wide range
3. Prompting you to take action (e.g. store visit, seek of channels of communication. The channels included
information) relatives/friends, and professionals such as advisers at
4. Helping you understand everything a brand offers you beauty counters in stores, and doctors.
5. Often the first way you hear about new things
6. Conveying whether a product/brand is good value
Usual sources of health advice and beauty ideas
The best use of this kind of information comes from Sources cited by 30% or more of sample
comparing different channels in order to show the relative
strengths and weaknesses of each, and thus how a certain HEALTH ADVICE: BEAUTY IDEAS:
combination of channels creates the most effective Magazines 82% Magazines 86%
communication among a defined target audience. TV 40% TV 34%
Relatives/friends 39% Beauty counter 31%
IMPLICATIONS FOR MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS Doctor 34% Relatives/friends 30%
People’s perceptions placed magazines ahead of other These elements of personalisation and consistent depth
CHANNEL PLANNING
media in terms of interesting information content and of interest are characteristics that help make magazines
being tailored to users’ individual needs. a suitable complement to television with its own well-
known contrasting strengths.
“Absorbing Media” respondents were shown a list of
statements and asked to say to which media each
statement applied. Magazines emerged as the medium
that was most widely thought to contain information
that was of most interest. Newspapers ranked second,
and television third, but some way behind magazines.
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% agreeing it applies
Magazines 45 %
Newspapers 36 %
Newspaper supplements 17 %
Commercial TV 30 %
Commercial radio 8%
Websites 24 %
Most of the attitude statements in “Absorbing Media” terms of helping people decide between two similar
concerned advertising in each of the six media. products they were considering purchasing.
Although many people have a generally negative
attitude to advertising, the results consistently showed Turning to negative aspects, television stood out as
that advertising in magazines is seen more positively being the medium creating the most unfavourable
than in other media. attitudes towards its advertising. Just over half of
viewers said they often find the advertising annoying.
Advertising in magazines was seen as more relevant Almost 40% felt that the commercials were too
than in other media (television ranked second at some intrusive and that, overall, the medium is the worse for
distance behind), and as being more helpful as a buying them.
guide (television and newspapers coming second).
Advertising in magazines and television was more Commercial radio and websites also came out poorly in
trusted and believed than advertising seen elsewhere. terms of these unfavourable attitudes. In contrast, the
People felt they were more likely to pay attention to an three forms of print media – magazines, newspapers
advertisement if they saw it in their favourite magazine and newspaper supplements - fared much better, with
or television programme. Magazine advertising led in relatively low levels of negative comment.
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“This medium has advertising that I find relevant” “I’m more likely to pay attention to an advertisement
CHANNEL PLANNING
if it appears in/on one of my favourite …”
% agreeing it applies
Magazines 34 % % agreeing it applies
Newspapers 18 % Magazines 30 %
Newspaper supplements 9% Newspapers 14 %
Commercial TV 23 % Newspaper supplements 7%
Commercial radio 5% Commercial TV 28 %
Websites 10 % Commercial radio 6%
Websites 6%
“Advertising in this medium is helpful as a
buying guide” “The advertising can help me decide between two
similar products that I’m considering purchasing”
% agreeing it applies
Magazines 35 % % agreeing it applies
Newspapers 22 % Magazines 28 %
Newspaper supplements 13 % Newspapers 15 %
Commercial TV 24 % Newspaper supplements 9%
Commercial radio 6% Commercial TV 21 %
Websites 14 % Commercial radio 4%
Websites 9%
“I can usually trust and believe the advertising”
“I often find the advertising annoying”
% agreeing it applies
Magazines 23 % % agreeing it applies
Newspapers 17 % Magazines 10 %
Newspaper supplements 10 % Newspapers 11 %
Commercial TV 22 % Newspaper supplements 9%
Commercial radio 8% Commercial TV 51 %
Websites 7% Commercial radio 23 %
Websites 18 %
Base: All aged 15+
Source: Absorbing Media, 2002
Because different media are used in different ways for shows, all six media are used amid considerable other
different reasons and in different situations, the nature activities, including exposure to other media. (The table
and degree of attention varies substantially from should be read vertically.)
medium to medium.
Television viewers are particularly prone to temporarily
People do not always consume media in isolation. There focus on other things when the commercials come on,
is often a lot going on around them at the moment of because viewers are not in control of how long the
media exposure. Sometimes one medium is employed advertisements run. Only 29% watch the commercial
only in a supporting role. Two media are often used ‘nearly all or a lot of the time’. Otherwise they are
together. All this has a marked bearing on how well switching channels (26% do this ‘nearly all or a lot of
media content is received and digested. the time), talking to someone in the room or on the
phone (31%), being distracted by something else
The “Absorbing Media” survey investigated some of the (28%), or leave the room temporarily (21%). If they are
other activities which were going on while consumers watching a video-recorded programme, 69% fast
were using each of the six media. As the next table forward through the commercials.
Activities done ‘Nearly all/a lot of the time’ while using each medium
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% % % % % %
CHANNEL PLANNING
Read magazine 11 15 3
Read newspaper 9 13 1
Read newspaper supplement 6 9 2
Watch TV 22 23 21 7 4
Listen to commercial radio 15 13 11 4 7
Look at websites 5 3 3 3 5
Talk, in room or on phone 22 19 18 22 23 17
Do household chores 18 29
Drive 41
Share Of Attention: Magazines And Television Share Of Attention: Magazines And Radio
CHANNEL PLANNING
This makes sense. Television and radio are media which require attention, because the reader must actively use
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can be received passively, allowing them to wash over his or her brain to scan the pages, select what to read,
the viewer or listener, who may remain mentally and read it.
switched off or just in ‘monitoring’ mode. Magazines
All media are regarded as sources of ideas and triggers though they are closely followed by websites and
for consumer action. High proportions of users of each television. 68% of magazine readers said they have
media channel readily admit that they have taken action picked up ideas from their publications; 43% said they
as a result of something they have seen or heard on have followed some advice given, and 36% have tried
their chosen medium. However some media are more something for the first time.
effective in this respect than others. Magazines and
websites are particularly action-oriented, as the next When it comes to purchasing products and services,
table indicates. magazines and websites perform substantially better
than other media. 43% of website users and 41% of
In terms of picking up ideas, following advice and trying magazine readers said they have bought something as a
something for the first time, magazines lead the way – result of their surfing or magazine reading.
Picked up ideas 68 50 52 62 33 60
Followed some advice given 43 35 30 35 24 37
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Tried something for first time 36 23 24 33 16 32
CHANNEL PLANNING
Bought something 41 29 26 28 16 43
Any of these 87 78 75 83 58 86
The broad findings from “Absorbing Media” are not The research showed that magazine advertising is part
just a UK phenomenon but are universal, arising from of the environment a consumer consciously explores in
the nature of the media. Similar results have been search of things of interest. The advertising is not just
reported in other countries. One example is “Media about getting ‘hard’ information, but is also about
Choices”, conducted in 2000 by Erdos & Morgan for getting to know brands and products, by seeing them in
Magazine Publishers of America [91]. Another example an environment where they can be looked at, revisited
is an Australian study called “Courting the Consumer” and compared. The statements concerning advertising
[92], published by Magazine Publishers of Australia. It in magazines which attracted the highest levels of
was based on a combination of qualitative research agreement from the sample were ‘The ads help me
(focus groups) and a quantitative survey using a sample compare the choices available’ and ‘The ads contain
of 1617 adults. useful product information’. The advertising plays an
intimate role, coming alongside consumers when they
The Australian survey concluded that magazines are the are deciding which products and brands best fit their
medium of courtship, bringing people closer to things of individual needs. This is why the MPA called magazines
interest. Magazines come alongside and build familiarity the medium of courtship.
for the products advertised in them. Television is the
medium of introduction, with its intrusiveness making it Respondents were asked in which of the four media
good for attracting attention and maintaining visibility. they first find out about new products, for each of ten
Radio plays the role of invisible companion, and product fields. In half the product fields TV was the
newspapers are the medium of ‘plugging in’, taking leading medium, and magazines were the leading
CHANNEL PLANNING
readers behind the summary details that appear on TV. medium in all but one of the remaining product fields.
When they were not top-scoring, TV and magazines
The survey described how magazines, television, radio were usually in second place. Respondents were next
and newspapers perform different roles, and the mind- asked which medium was best at providing information
set a consumer brings to each medium acts as a filter, needed to decide what to buy. Magazines were the
affecting how advertising works. The MPA report states dominant medium, leading in six of the ten product
that while “TV is the passive entertainment medium for fields and coming second in all but one of the
introduction and visibility boosting, magazines are the remainder. Magazines were also the dominant medium
active involvement medium for the courtship stages of in terms of the best source of information and ideas.
building familiarity and preference. Together they Moreover this dominance was accentuated among
perform complementary roles in the consumer’s consumers who were ‘very interested’ in the product
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decision-making process - one adds power to the field. Thus magazines allow an advertiser to focus a
other.” message on the very people who are most interested in
what the advertiser has to say.
Another survey from abroad which throws light on the The study, conducted by research agency Veldkamp/TNS
varying ways in which the principal media channels NIPO and published by newspaper publishers’ trade
work is the 2004 “Media Experience Study” association Cebuco, interviewed a representative
(Mediabeleving 2004) published in The Netherlands sample of 1,000 people aged 13 and over. Respondents
[93]. By comparing a range of media it underlined some were shown a list of eight dimensions, and asked to say
of magazines’ strongest attributes: readers’ which dimensions applied to the various media they
identification with their favourite titles, enjoyment, used.
stimulating information of a practical nature, and
advertising that provides new, clear and useful
information that is believable.
The summary table shows the ranking of each medium, on each dimension. The table should be read horizontally.
Information 2 1 4 3 5= 7 8 5=
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Enjoyment 3 6 7 5 4 2 1 8
CHANNEL PLANNING
Negative emotions 5= 1 3= 7= 2 5= 7= 3=
Leisure/pastime 2 3 1 6= 4= 4= 8 6=
Stimulant 2 5 7= 3 4 6 1 7=
Identification 1 3 7 4= 2 8 4= 6
Social interaction 4 2 5= 7 3 8 1 5=
Practical usage 2 5 3 1 7= 6 7= 4
Among eight media, magazines were ranked first or The internet has rapidly established itself within the mix
second on five out of eight dimensions: identification, of media. It achieved top ranking in terms of practical
information, stimulation, practical usage, and usage, just ahead of magazines, and ranked third on
leisure/pastime. information and stimulation (in both cases just behind
magazines). The table reveals the relative strengths and
weaknesses of all nine channels.
Something new 1 3 5 2 9 6 8 4 7
Useful information 2 3 1 6 9 8 5 4 7
Believable 1 4 2 5 8= 6 8= 3 7
Happy 2 4= 8 9 3 7 4= 6 1
Clear 3 6 1= 1= 8 7 4 5 9
Enthusiastic 3 1 4 5 7 8 9 2 6
CHANNEL PLANNING
Original/unique 3 5= 8 5= 5= 4 1 9 2
Felt involved 6 2= 1 2= 8 7 9 5 4
Action 5 2 1 4 7 8= 8= 3 6
Newspp=Newspapers, paid-for. Free pp= free newspapers. D Mail=direct mail/commercial post. Outdr=Outdoor
Magazine advertising was ranked first in terms of the dimensions. The one exception was its third ranking
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‘something new’ and ‘believable’. It was ranked second on ‘happy’. Television emerged as the medium with the
on ‘useful information’ and ‘happy’. It came third in most irritating advertising, and advertising which is the
terms of ‘clear’, ‘enthusiastic’ and ‘original/unique’. least useful, new or believable. Television advertising
Thus magazines were ranked in the first three positions was also among the least clear, and aroused some of the
for seven out of ten dimensions. lowest enthusiasm, involvement and action.
Again the internet achieved some high ranking Clearly, magazines have many positive attributes which
positions. It was first equal with free newspapers in enable them to contribute something valuable and
terms of clarity, and ranked second (behind magazines) unique within a multi-channel marketing campaign.
for ‘something new’, and second equal with paid-for
newspapers for ‘felt involved’.
The “Absorbing Media” research, in both its qualitative and Magazines can arouse interest in topics, suggest
quantitative stages, probed into the experience of using information sources for readers to explore, and provide
websites. While the internet has clearly made a huge website addresses in articles and advertisements. The
impact, it is perceived as two distinct media: a internet is such a wide open bottomless uncharted and
communication channel (e-mail and chat rooms) and an invisible world that the editing function which magazines
information channel (websites). can provide – reviewing a topic and suggesting avenues for
further exploration – can be a very valuable one. Magazines’
While it is well accepted that websites have an immense own websites can be a useful part of such referrals, but in
array of valuable and interesting information, the survey most cases they won’t be the main online sources.
found a widespread concern among people about the
impact on them as individuals. Surfing websites is seen by A new if modest piece of research illustrates one type of
many people as a rather lonely, antisocial and intense interaction between the channels. An American study
activity. They also complain that it is expensive and released in November 2004 by research agencies Ipsos-
sometimes frustrating. Some people view websites as Insight and Faulkner Focus [94] showed a close relationship
addictive, time-consuming and in danger of taking over building up between print and online advertising. The two
their lives without firm rationing. The web experience is not media work together as natural companions. For example,
treasured in the same way as the magazine experience. it was found that information in print had sometimes led
Instead it is characterised by a relative lack of relationship directly to an online search, which in turn sometimes led to
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with the medium. In response to a series of attitude purchase. Thus one respondent saw a print ad for a cell-
statements, 45% agreed that “using the web is a lonely phone plan, then went online to the advertiser’s website for
CHANNEL PLANNING
unsociable activity”, 34% agreed that “I feel a certain further details, and finally went out to a shop and made a
amount of stress when I use the web”, and 26% agreed purchase. A symbiotic relationship was found between print
“the web takes up too much time”. To the statement “I and the internet.
have a relationship with the web, like a friend”, 74%
disagreed. It is clear that advertisers should, where relevant, include
their online address in their print ads, and that the online
This is of course offset by the strong positives of the web. advertising should consciously tie in with the print
The medium is becoming an empowering revolution for advertising. Information on the website which relates to
consumers. With an incredible encyclopaedic knowledge products featured in print ads should be easy and quick to
available at one’s fingertips, the quest for information can find on the site, when readers visit from the printed page.
become an adventure. 85% of respondents agreed with
the statement that “I can find almost any information I need DIGITAL MAGAZINES AND THE INTERNET
on the web”. The web has given individuals a sense of
control. And this factor of control links back to magazines The way in which magazine advertising drives readers to
and other print media. advertisers’ websites is even more marked for the digital
editions of magazines, because of the easy hyperlinks.
The web has joined print as a second major medium which Digital editions are exact reproductions of the printed
allows users full control of their exposure (except for the magazine, but held digitally, distributed electronically, and
pop-up ads). This embraces control of both what is looked usually read or at least scanned on the screen, with the user
at and the time spent on it. choosing which if any pages to print out or to store digitally.
One key difference from the printed magazine is that the
“Absorbing Media” has shown that consumers’ experience digital editions include many hyperlinks to websites,
of the web has led them to perceive the traditional media embedded in the editorial and in the ads, thus giving
channels in a new light. In particular, respondents pointed immediate accessibility to advertisers’ websites. Although
out how they appreciate the selection, screening and only a small proportion of consumer magazines have digital
mental editing which magazines offer them. editions in 2005, the trend is clearly sharply upwards.
MAGAZINES AND WEB CROSS-REFERENCING EACH Mosaic Media Partners and 101 Communications published
OTHER in April 2005 an internet-based survey among American
subscribers to digital magazines [95]. The subscribers had
The internet is like print in that it is under the control of the similar demographic profiles to their print counterparts,
consumer rather than of the publisher/broadcaster. The two were happy with digital publishing formats, and became
channels can work well together because they can cross- highly involved with editorial and advertising content.
savvy group, by definition, so do computer magazines to the future, when respondents were asked about the
still have a role? Yes, they do – as shown by a survey likely situation in three years time, 43% thought computer
commissioned by VNU Global Media and conducted by magazines would become more important than now (a
A C Nielsen. The 2004 study “Media Preferences of figure only beaten by the internet and – marginally – email
Digital Consumers” [96] interviewed almost 7,000 newsletters about IT) while only 12% thought the
consumers in seven European countries including the magazines would become less important (the lowest
UK. All respondents had a PC and access to the internet percentage for any channel except the internet).
What this demonstrates is that the internet has not alongside computer magazines and added new attributes,
displaced magazines, even for information about but words and images printed on paper and published in
computers and digital products. The new medium has come magazine format still have something unique to contribute.
Although, like a conventional paid-for magazine, many the brand, and boost share of expenditure. The “APA
customer magazines carry advertising from third parties, Advantage Study” [98] was conducted by Millward
they are a separate channel of communication because Brown, and published in March 2005 for customer
their prime functions are different. Customer magazines magazines’ trade body the Association of Publishing
are regularly published titles produced by publishing Agencies (APA) and Royal Mail. 17 brands with
agencies on behalf of brand owners, and are distributed customer magazines were studied, and for each brand
to customers, employees, members and/or two samples were selected: a sample of customers
stakeholders. Most are distributed in-store or by post. exposed to the magazine, and a control sample of
Their underlying objectives are to deepen the brand’s customers who were not exposed to the magazine. The
relationship with its target audience, engaging in magazine sample was weighted by demographics to
dialogue with customers, and enhancing loyalty. This match the control sample. Aggregating across the 17
may involve informing and entertaining the reader; brands, a total sample of 4,390 consumers was
providing advice, ideas and suggestions about products interviewed.
or services, thus driving sales; increasing the frequency
of store visits; representing a tone of voice for the Millward Brown’s ‘Brand Equity Pyramid’ technique was
brand; influencing brand image; or any other marketing used to assess the impact of customer magazines. The
objective. According to the latest bi-annual Mintel pyramid consists of four measures which taper upwards:
report on the customer magazine industry, published in awareness of the brand; acceptance (would not reject
2005 [97], the industry comprises about 700 titles and the brand); appeal (it offers something more than
was worth about £385 million in 2004, with turnover competitors); and affinity (good knowledge of the
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on a sharply rising trend. brand and higher than average purchase consideration).
CHANNEL PLANNING
IMPROVING BRAND EQUITY Results showed that customers who had seen the
magazine were more positively disposed to the brand
New research has demonstrated that customer than customers who had not seen the magazine – on all
magazines can increase the appeal of and affinity with four measures.
Since both samples were customers of the brands the brand was 28% higher, and affinity (linked to
surveyed, the levels of awareness and acceptance were purchase consideration) was 32% higher, among those
very high. Where a substantial difference emerged was customers who had seen the customer magazine.
in the two highest levels of the pyramid. The appeal of
On all six attitudes, reading of customer magazines was customer magazines, published in 1999 [100] and 2002
associated with an improvement of 15%-27%. [31, 101], can be found on the ‘How Magazine
Advertising Works’ website, www.hmaw.net
A summary of two other research studies on
PROMOTIONS WORK HARDER WHEN ACCOMPANIED the effect of promotional activity on both profits and
BY MAGAZINE ADVERTISING long term buying behaviour. Both studies found that
promotions were bad if not disastrous for profits, and
In-store promotions can give an immediate boost to had no beneficial effect on long term sales or brand
sales, sometimes quite dramatically - though the boost loyalty. Jones wrote in 1995 “the sales stimulus provided
dies away almost as soon as the promotion has ended. by promotions always succeeds in sucking profit out of
Nevertheless “Sales Uncovered” (described earlier in a brand, despite its positive effect on short term
section 23) has shown that promotions are more volume” [104]. Abraham & Lodish used the IRI
effective in the very short term when accompanied by BehaviourScan panel to examine the marginal
magazine advertising. profitability of promotions, comparing promotions
against a projected baseline derived from unpromoted
In the “Sales Uncovered” analysis, for each advertiser periods. They concluded [105] “Only 16% of trade
who used promotions at all, the weeks during the promotion events were profitable based on their
magazine campaign period in which promotions incremental sales of brands... For many of the
occurred were examined. promotions, the cost of selling an incremental dollar of
sales was greater than one dollar!” – partly because
Promotion Weeks: % Increase In Market Share (£) consumers bring forward their purchases by stocking up
during the promotion and thus do not need to buy at
normal prices in the following period. Abraham &
Lodish also found that promotions do not carry any
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benefits into subsequent periods as advertising does.
CHANNEL PLANNING
A large-scale Nielsen study called "Strategies of
Successful Brands" [106] also concluded that sales
promotion activity does not achieve brand building at all
in the long term.
off than promotional and other expenditure. the effectiveness of promotions was 2.4. Magazines not
only make television work harder – they also make
MMA also pointed out [111] that media advertising promotions work harder. This reinforces the evidence
(unlike promotions) may also produce long term from “Sales Uncovered” quoted in the previous sub-
benefits as well. In addition it can reduce price sensitivity section.
among customers (making profit generation in the long
D
Of particular interest to magazine publishers are two magazines is even more effective than television on
competing media strategies: using TV only, versus its own.
combining TV with magazines.
Many aspects of this topic are examined below, and the
Magazines are an effective and versatile advertising clear conclusion emerges that the effectiveness of
medium not only when employed on their own but also television advertising will be enhanced if it is combined
when used in conjunction with television. They are a with magazine advertising.
natural complement to TV. Television is of course a very
powerful medium, and obviously it works in a very From the point of view of managing the budgets, there
different way from magazines. Its strengths cannot be are two ways of bringing this mixed-media policy into
matched by magazines, but television has limitations being. One is to re-allocate a minority of the TV budget
too, and these are precisely where magazines have their (perhaps about 25% or 35%) to magazines. The other
strengths. is to leave the television budget untouched and make
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magazines a straight addition, drawing the money from
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
Thus television is intrusive, has movement and sound elsewhere and in particular from promotions.
and can create emotion, and while the commercial is Promotions can boost sales in the very short term but in
being broadcast there is no competing editorial content; the long run they weaken the product’s branding. In
but a commercial runs a fixed length of time and is addition they can often be shown to be unprofitable
beyond the control of the viewer. Magazine even in the short term (as just discussed). A mixed-
advertisements are permanent and portable; the reader media campaign improves the efficiency of media
can hold and study an ad for as long as desired. The advertising and justifies larger budgets spent on above-
reader is in control of his or her own exposure. the-line media - if necessary at the expense of below-
Consequently the combination of television and the-line.
No television advertising campaign provides evenly At no extra cost, the mixed media strategy gave the
balanced coverage across all sectors of the population. total audience almost a fifth extra exposures, from 400
Many people are simply light viewers of commercial gross ratings to 493 (see table). At the same time it
television and cannot be reached to the same extent or substantially increased the net coverage (those exposed
frequency as the heavy viewers who watch a lot of to at least one advertisement) from 73% to 87%. The
commercial TV. The light viewers do however read 4+ coverage rose from 40% to 54%. The 4+ coverage
magazines. is an important measure for a four-week campaign since
it shows the proportion of the target audience who see
Magazines are a mass medium with a high penetration an advertisement at least once a week on average.
of the population. 77% of adults read at least one of
the 174 magazines measured by the National Even more important was the effect among women
Readership Survey (January-December 2004, average who see least commercial television. Among Light-Non
issue readership). When one considers that there are ITV viewers, gross ratings almost doubled, while net
also more than 3,000 other consumer magazines, it is coverage increased by half, from 51% to 76%. 4+
safe to say that more than 80% of adults read a coverage rose dramatically from 15% to 34%. If a
magazine. higher proportion of the budget had been allocated to
magazines (say 30%-35%) this would have improved
An appropriate selection of magazines in an advertising even further.
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
Weight Of Viewing
Weight Of Viewing
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Source: KMR-SPC (BARB/TGI fused database, Mercury software)
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
Another way of looking at this is to ask what the final 4% net coverage, and 8% 4+ coverage, to what is
25% of the budget adds, once the first 75% has been delivered by the original 75% spent on television. If
allocated to television. instead the final 25% of expenditure is allocated to
magazines, it adds 193 gross rating points, a further 18%
If the final 25% is spent on television, among the total net coverage and 22% 4+ coverage. In all respects, it is
audience of all women it adds 100 rating points, a further materially better than television’s marginal contribution.
The chief benefit however is among the people who see 5% of 4+ coverage. By contrast, spending the marginal
least of the television campaign. Among Light-Non 25% in magazines adds 187 rating points, a further
viewers, if the final 25% of money is spent on television, 30% of net coverage and 23% of 4+ coverage.
it adds only 41 rating points, 5% of net coverage and
It is not effective to buy even more ratings in a medium 6. A lower cost per thousand.
in order to reach the people who hardly use the medium. 7. And as a later section of this report shows, the
It is better to turn to another medium which they do use. opportunity of communicating the advertising
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Because television and magazines work in such different sequence TV-magazine-TV noticed individual vegetables
but complementary ways, the communication delivered in the television commercial much more the second time
by a TV-only campaign can be substantially enhanced by they saw the commercial. The magazine ad had
adding magazines. evidently made them more aware of the range of
vegetables and this affected the way they experienced
The two classic pieces of research which demonstrated the subsequent television commercial. Thus the
the improved communications delivered by TV-plus- magazine ad on its own not only communicated certain
print were ‘Multiplying the Media Effect’ [113] and ‘The things better than the commercial, but also enhanced
Media Multiplier’ [114]. Between them, they provide 19 the response to the commercial.
detailed case histories showing how print
advertisements can add to and enrich what is perceived Milk
in television commercials, especially if the creative Something similar happened with the advertising for
treatments in the two media are designed to be milk. Not only did the magazine advertisement
complementary. communicate more thoughts about the different types
of milk available from the milkman - skimmed, semi-
‘MULTIPLYING THE MEDIA EFFECT’ skimmed and standard - but also informants became far
more aware of the skimmed and semi-skimmed milk
This survey, carried out in 1985 and published during that appeared in the television commercial when they
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1986 and 1987, studied seven mixed-media campaigns saw it after the magazine advertisement, compared
[113]. It was commissioned by a group of consumer with when they saw TV before the magazine ad. A
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
magazine publishers working together under the name different stimulus in a different medium had affected
of The Magazine Marketplace Group, under the the way the subsequent TV advertising was understood.
auspices of PPA, and the fieldwork was conducted by
Communication Research Ltd. Danish Bacon
Another campaign was for Danish Bacon, in which both
The approach was to show informants magazine the magazine ad and the commercial portrayed bacon
advertisements and television commercials from the sizzling in a frying pan. As a control, part of the sample
same campaigns and examine what was had seen the bacon commercial, then a magazine ad for
communicated. This was done through hall tests, in a different product, then the bacon commercial again.
which each person saw two or three campaigns. All The test sample had seen the bacon commercial, then
informants were users of the product types in question, the magazine ad for bacon, then the Bacon commercial
as well as falling within demographic quotas. The order again. A word-count was made of the number of
of showing TV and magazine advertisements was mentions of words like ‘appetising’, ‘hungry’ etc after
carefully rotated, with advertisements being shown a each showing. Expressing the word-count in index form,
second time under a controlled sequence. After each ad among those who saw a magazine ad for a different
was seen, a standard set of open-ended questions was product between the two showings of the bacon
asked, the key question being “Please tell me everything commercial, there was an index of 100 mentions of
that passed through your mind while you were looking ‘appetising’, ‘hungry’ etc after the first TV showing and
at the advertisement, whether or not it was actually an index of 31 after the second TV showing. Among the
connected with it”. matched sample of those who saw the magazine ad for
bacon between the two showings of the bacon
Illustrations from three of the campaigns give a flavour commercial, there was an index of 115 mentions of
of the results. ‘appetising’, ‘hungry’ etc after the first commercial, an
index of 162 after seeing the magazine ad, and 92 after
Birds Eye Country Club the second TV showing.
One of the campaigns was for the Birds Eye Country
Club range of frozen vegetables. First, the magazine The point here is not only that the magazine exposure
advertisement (when seen before TV) provoked a produced more ‘appetising’-type thoughts than any of
greater range of thoughts than the TV commercial. In the television showings, but that after seeing the bacon
particular there was more emphasis on the vegetables magazine advertisement the informants experienced far
themselves, especially how attractive they looked, and more ‘appetising’-type thoughts while watching the
the variety (though the TV commercial showed just as TV commercial than did the informants in the control
great a variety). A word-count of the number of sample.
mentions of each vegetable shows this clearly. Second,
and very significantly, informants who were shown the
The page and the screen nourish each other. 3. Add extra information or messages
4. Re-inforce the TV message
‘THE MEDIA MULTIPLIER’ 5. Expand the TV message
6. Help understanding of the TV message
‘Multiplying the Media Effect’ aroused such interest 7. Strengthen brand identification
around the world that the UK’s Press Research Council, 8. Make the product more accessible
representing magazines and newspapers, extended the 9. Focus more on product-oriented messages
investigation by commissioning twelve more case 10. Create a more positive feeling towards the product
studies. They were published in 1990 in a report titled
‘The Media Multiplier’ [114]. There are two other important considerations:
Two research companies conducted the survey in 1988 11. The beneficial effects can be heightened by
and 1989: Communication Research Ltd and The building creative links
Research Business. There was a robust sample of 1,400. 12. The benefit is a two-way affair
Consumers were asked to describe their response to the
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TV commercial both before and after being shown a While no mixed-media campaign will work in all of
print advertisement for the same product. Their these ways simultaneously, all TV-plus-print campaigns
separate responses to each medium were recorded, and will benefit from some of the factors on this list.
control groups were shown only the TV commercial or
only the print ad. This meant it was possible to identify The key findings from four of the campaigns are
the effects of TV alone, of print alone, and of both summarised here, to illustrate the print-television
media together. relationship:
The results demonstrated that advertising in magazines Cheeses of England and Wales
or newspapers in addition to television, rather than The television and magazine advertisements were very
using television on its own, bring a number of very different in style but complemented one another well.
important communication benefits. In summary: Responses to the print ad were particularly product-
oriented, and there was much evidence of interaction
• Print can lead people to perceive the TV commercial between the two media. The print treatment tended to
in new ways. direct attention to details within the TV commercial,
• Print can also convey new information that is not in focusing on the product rather than the execution. It led
the TV commercial. respondents to look harder at the recipe information
• The result of adding print to a TV campaign is a featured very briefly in the commercial and encouraged
richer, more complete communication. thoughts concerning the variety and versatility of the
cheeses. The magazine ad also helped informants to
Print not only makes its own unique contribution, it also appreciate the health and fitness story within the
makes the television commercials work harder. The commercial - including comments about cheese being
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respondents dwell on the varied practical attributes of an creatively, reflecting the scene.
Access card as well as the general quality of flexibility.
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
Print had added flesh to the TV bones. There were four key messages to be communicated,
and spontaneous comprehension of them was tested.
Sarsons Pickling Vinegar Adding together the awareness percentages of all four
Both TV and print communicated the idea of quick and messages, there was a total score of 89% among
easy pickling, and the correct brand name. The people who saw the TV commercial only once. People
magazine advertisement, however, more clearly who saw the TV commercial twice had a total score of
communicated the existence of two types of vinegar, 98%, an increase of 9 percentage points. But those who
and the different purposes for which they can be used. saw the TV commercial once, followed by the print ad
Exposure to the magazine ad had an effect on some once, had a total score of 118% - an increase of 29
informants when they saw the commercial for a second percentage points. That is, when the second ad was in
time, for they appeared to look out for details and were print it had three times the effect of when the second
more aware of the two varieties of vinegar that were ad was another TV commercial.
shown in the commercial, and the versatility of use
which this implied. Of added interest is the effect on the four individual
messages which the advertising was intended to
Volkswagen Passat communicate – summarised in the chart.
Exposure to the print advertisement was able to increase
significantly the number of new thoughts generated
while seeing the TV commercial for the second time. Spontaneous Comprehension Of Messages
Readers were able to pick up detailed copy points
mentioned in the magazine ad, such as the large interior
space and the plush upholstery, and were helped to
perceive such points in the commercial when it was
shown again. Print was successful in reinforcing the
messages conveyed by the commercial, sometimes
leading certain informants to understand these
messages when they had not been fully absorbed from
television alone. The close creative links between the
treatments in the two media facilitated the transfer of
ideas from one medium to the other.
feels like a motorcycle, the same lifestyle and fun in the • Action is promoted. The intensified processing of
Cougar as on the Harley’. By an even greater margin potential arguments, which is an effect of mixed-
than before, a second exposure increased media exposure, causes consumers to internalise
comprehension if it was in print: 20%, compared with reasons why they should do something and to
8% if it was on TV. whom they can turn.
• Creative links strengthen the mix effect, but this
The fourth message was ‘Free, freedom, gives a feeling doesn’t mean the print ad should be a still from the
of freedom and adventure, freedom and light- commercial. Best results are achieved when a varied
heartedness’. This was such an obvious message from design is used to express the same basic messages,
the advertising – including the TV voice-over saying to reinforce the memorising and processing of the
“The return to freedom “ - that around 60% of advertising content.
respondents understood it straight away, and seeing
another ad didn’t increase comprehension whether it THE SYNERGY IS WORLD-WIDE
was on TV or in print. This is an instructive point. Most
people have learned how to decode advertising Since the publication in 1986 of the pioneering
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messages to some extent, so they get the obvious ‘Multiplying the Media Effect’ many other surveys along
message easily enough, but for the more subtle, similar lines have been conducted in countries around
detailed messages print is more powerful than the world [116]. All have found the same results: the
additional TV. combination of print and television has a multiplying
effect on communication effectiveness, compared with
Based on the evidence of all twelve researched television on its own. Without doubt this is not a
campaigns, the study concluded that: phenomenon peculiar to the UK but is a result of the
contrasting but complementary characteristics of the
• Mixed-media contacts improve the learning effect, two media.
lead to a more intensive perception of the
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compared with an average awareness score for TV magazine advertising. Awareness of the campaigns had
commercials at their first exposure of 13% awareness been measured by Millward Brown as part of their
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
per 100 rating points. As Millward Brown wrote, “this normal continuous telephone tracking studies, during
suggests that when they first appear, the print the two-year period January 1996-December 1997. For
executions are often better at registering something in every campaign, Millward Brown compared the
connection with the brand than TV”. awareness generated by each medium with the
expenditure in the medium, and to the number of gross
This is a most impressive result for magazine advertising rating points bought in the medium.
- creating more awareness on first exposure than
television usually accomplishes. The explanation is no Combining all 113 campaigns, 36% of total advertising
doubt to do with the repeat reading of magazine pages awareness was created by television, 29% by
(which QRS's PEX has demonstrated) and readers' ability magazines, and 35% jointly by television and magazines
to pause and study anything that catches their interest. together. Television therefore had a 71% share of
awareness (36%+35%) and magazines had a 64%
The reason that the average awareness index for share (29%+35%).
magazine ads across complete campaigns fell to 13% is,
in Millward Brown’s view, that a given creative execution 77% of the advertising expenditure had been on
in print eventually loses some of its impact because television and only 23% in magazines. Relating this to
readers have either absorbed the message from the ad awareness, television had an index of 92 (71% share of
or else mentally edit it out of their subsequent reading. awareness divided by 77% share of expenditure)
Millward Brown call this ‘wear-out’ but a more whereas magazines had an index of 278 (64% share of
appropriate term is ‘over-exposure’ because “this label awareness divided by 23% share of cost). Magazines'
correctly places responsibility for dealing with the factor index of 278 is 3.0 times greater than television's 92. In
upon the user of the medium” [117], the other words for every dollar spent, magazines delivered
advertiser/agency. This potential for over-exposure of a three times as much ad awareness as television.
given execution arises from one of the great benefits of
print advertising - that readers are in full control of what It was a similar conclusion when looking at gross ratings
they look at and can study an advertisement for as long rather than expenditure. Television generated 76% of
as they choose, and as often as they choose. the gross ratings while magazines generated 24%. Thus
the index for television was 93 (71% share of awareness
The solution to over-exposure of a given creative divided by 76% share of ratings) and for magazines it
treatment is to use more executions: instead of running was 267. So for every 100 rating points bought,
just one advertisement, create two or three. The new magazines delivered almost three times as much ad
ads will stimulate fresh involvement and push the awareness as television.
average awareness index above the 13% mark - that is,
above TV’s average level.
A growing number of market tests and econometric • For the magazine campaigns, the top 40% were
analyses are proving that mixed-media campaigns defined as the heavy or ‘exposed’ group (as a
involving magazines can sell products - and sell them shorthand); in general, they accounted for about
more effectively than a campaign using television on its 90% of total magazine exposures. The bottom 40%
own. Some of the following examples are from the UK, in the ranking were defined as the ‘non-exposed’
while others are drawn from elsewhere and show that group and acted as a control group; they accounted
the results arise from the nature of the two media and for around 2% of total magazine exposures.
not from any peculiarity of the UK market. • For television, a medium with a more diffused
audience, the 40% most heavily exposed to the
“SALES UNCOVERED” television advertising were defined as ‘heavy
viewers’; they accounted for about 72% of all
In recent years PPA has commissioned two major television exposures. The bottom 40% were
effectiveness studies utilising the TNS Superpanel, defined as ‘light/non viewers’; they accounted for
“Sales Uncovered” and “Proof of Performance”. Each about 13% of all television exposures.
included, among the brands examined, campaigns
which combined television and magazine advertising.
Magazines And TV: % Increase In Sales (£)
The “Sales Uncovered” study of 2005 [71], described in
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an earlier section, analysed 20 fmcg brands. Of these,
seven were TV+magazines campaigns whose impact
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
was assessed by medium. The average budget split
across these brands is shown in the pie chart. 70% of
the budget was spent in television and 22% in
magazines.
Budget Split
For each of these seven campaigns, Superpanel main Examination of the sales value figures showed that
shoppers were ranked according to their weight of these two groups had similar purchasing levels during
exposure to the magazine advertising and, separately, to the pre-campaign period, and identical absolute
the TV advertising: increases in sales during the campaign period (hence the
very similar percentage increases in sales).
10 magazine+TV brands
Brand shares (indexed)
*Magazines time-lagged by one month, to allow approximately for build-up of magazine reading. This analysis was
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run before NRS readership accumulation data were available.
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
For each of the ten brands covered, the ad expenditure ‘All months’ column is replaced by a ‘TV ad months’
in television outweighed the magazine expenditure, and column, and the indices in this column are slightly above
on average the TV spend was about twice the magazine 100, balanced by indices (not shown) of slightly below
spend. The results are summarised in the table above. 100 for the months when no TV advertising occurred.
The influence of the television advertising was felt by all The much greater weight of television advertising
the magazine exposure groups, for the brand share during these months had the effect of reducing the
indices for all groups were higher in the months when variation between most of the cells in the table, but the
magazine advertising was heaviest, which tended to be main exception was the index for the heavy reader
months when television advertising was also running. group in the months when magazine advertising was at
Nevertheless the effect of the magazine advertising can its strongest. Here the brand share index rose to 114, a
be seen in the gain of 11% among heavy readers gain of 11% compared with the months with no
(109/98) compared with 4% among non-readers magazine advertising (114/103).
(104/100).
PPA’s analysis neatly supports the Media Multiplier
This interaction effect can also be seen when the proposition that television plus magazines makes an
analysis is confined to those months in which television advertising budget work harder than does television on
advertising was taking place. In the following table the its own.
10 magazine+TV brands
Brand shares (indexed)
Months when TV advertising was taking place
*Magazines time-lagged by one month, to allow approximately for build-up of magazine reading. This analysis was
run before NRS readership accumulation data were available.
result of that year’s marketing efforts. Each medium’s magazine campaign began, the Carex market share of
percentage contribution to these incremental sales was sales was similar among households heavily exposed to
modelled, and divided by the medium’s percentage of the selected magazines and those lightly or not
marketing expenditure. This produced an effectiveness exposed. However as soon as the magazine advertising
index. For example, if a medium contributed 30% of commenced Carex's brand share leapt among the
incremental sales and accounted for 30% of marketing heavily exposed households while being little affected
expenditure, it would have an effectiveness of 1.0. The among the light or non exposed households. This was
higher the index the better. maintained throughout the campaign period.
MMA found that magazines were substantially more Additional research established that:
cost-effective than either television or radio. Magazines’ • Sales attributable to magazines were achieved at
effectiveness index of 1.2 contrasts with only 0.8 for one-third of the cost of sales attributed to TV.
television and 0.7 for radio. Expressed another way, a • Although magazines were only 19% of the budget,
dollar spent in magazines produced on average 50% they added 50% volume sales above the uplift
more sales than a dollar spent on television. generated by television.
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Kraft Jacobs Suchard, with a tradition of using television GERMANY: BAUER AND HASSLOCH BEHAVIOURSCAN
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as a branding medium, ran a test of a television and PANEL
magazines mixed-media campaign for their Kenco
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
Freeze Dried Instant Coffee [121]. IPC Magazines was In Germany a single-source panel has yielded further
able to offer regional facilities in its publications on a evidence about the virtues of mixed-media advertising.
sufficient scale, and the TV and magazines campaign Bauer Publishing have been responsible for a number of
ran from April to November 1995 in the tests using the GfK Hassloch BehaviourScan panel [122].
London/South/Anglia regions which accounted for 35% The panel consists of 3,000 households in the town of
of the market. In the rest of the country a TV-only Hassloch whose purchases in a range of product fields
campaign was run, on an equal expenditure basis. The are recorded using scanner technology in local stores.
budget for the magazine expenditure in the test area Panel members receive television through a cable
was found by switching a share of television money into system, which means that the commercials shown to
magazines. each household can be controlled. Panel members also
receive two weekly magazines as an incentive, and the
Among the target audience of ABC1 housewives, the advertisements carried in these can be varied too. For
net coverage achieved in the TV-only regions was near the launch of a personal care product two media
saturation but nevertheless it was improved slightly in strategies were tested, representing equal expenditures:
the mixed-media regions. The mixed-media campaign some households received 100% television and others
also increased gross opportunities to see by 39%, received advertising split 68% television and 32%
improved the average frequency of exposure by 35%, magazines. After the campaign had run for one year the
and greatly reduced the cost per thousand exposures. mixed-media strategy had outsold the TV-only strategy
Millward Brown tracking research showed gains in by 16%. Most of the increase was due to increased
advertising awareness in the test area compared with weight of purchasing, rather than the greater
the TV-only regions as soon as the magazine advertising penetration of the market - and this in turn was
began and it continued throughout the campaign attributed to a more powerful communication of the
period. Ad recognition levels were highest among advertiser’s message.
magazine readers, and overall the reduction in TV spend
in the test areas did not prove at all detrimental to brand USA: STAS of television and magazines
image.
John Philip Jones, a professor at Syracuse University in
Most significantly, sales were improved by the mixed- New York who spent many years working at J Walter
media strategy. This was measured by two panels, Thompson in London and elsewhere, has analysed and
Nielsen and TNS Superpanel. compared two sets of sales and exposure data - one
dealing with television advertising and the other with
With sales historically stronger in the south, it was magazine advertising.
important to allow for this in the analysis. Nielsen’s
figures showed that prior to the test period Kenco’s His technique is to produce a summary measure called
share of instant coffee sales in the test region was STAS (Short Term Advertising Strength) which represents
To measure the STAS of magazines Jones turned in 1998 JWT in USA, a packaged goods product [125].
to the most extensive body of single-source data
E
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NRS READERSHIP media-mix has always been difficult because print has
ACCUMULATION DATA never been planned like television. TV planning sets a
target reach goal each week to influence purchase
The publication in 2004 of the NRS Readership decisions as they occur. Magazine planning hasn’t had
Accumulation Study (see section 12) means that at last that option because the weekly data have not been
media planners can study magazines’ week by week available. It’s been impossible to schedule print to meet
reach, and make direct comparisons with the weekly basic week-by-week media objectives. So it’s been
reach of television schedules. Agencies can plan print in difficult to put print into a media-mix plan with TV. Now
the same way they plan television: through weekly it can be done.”
rating points and weekly reach estimates.
The practical implications of the readership
Magazine advertising campaigns can be better designed accumulation data were demonstrated in a presentation
to maximise reach at required times by phasing the at the PPA Conference in 2005 by John Billett, chairman
insertions, and thus the time-released delivery of of Billetts, the media auditing company which monitors
exposure, in the optimum way. For mixed-media media planning strategy and performance on behalf of
strategies, the magazine element of the campaign can advertisers [127]. Until now, he said, magazine
be integrated with the television or other media in an campaigns have typically been planned on the basis of
improved manner. The balance between reach and when magazines are published rather than when they
E
frequency, week by week, can be controlled more are read. On media schedule flowcharts, magazine
efficiently. All this will make campaigns more effective. issues are timed to plug the gaps according to on-sale
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
dates. The result is that there is uneven delivery of
In addition the accumulation data will enhance post- advertising messages during the campaign period.
campaign analysis of campaigns, leading to more
precise accountability. To illustrate, Billett gave the example of a real magazine
campaign in 2004 which Billetts had analysed as part of
The well-known media philosopher Erwin Ephron, of their monitoring for the advertiser. The campaign had
Ephron, Papazian & Ephron Inc in the USA, said [quoted not been planned using audience accumulation data,
in 41] “The big step is to lose insertion planning and but Billetts retrospectively analysed it in that way. The
focus on how print delivers messages. The answer is result was highly variable numbers of gross rating points
‘over time’. We should use actual week-by-week by week, as the chart shows. In weeks 1 & 2, 6 & 7, and
audience delivery for planning, just as we do with 10 & 11 there were ‘black holes’ with much less
television. We have all the data we need from the exposure than in other weeks. This is not what was
accumulation studies to place magazine exposures in implied by the neat-looking schedule flowchart
time. It’s our thinking that has to change.” Kathi Love, displaying on-sale dates, nor what was intended.
CEO of MRI, commented [126] “Bringing print into the
Magazine campaign planned without using accumulation data: uneven weekly ratings
television advertisers were achieving on average 7,000 summaries for the whole campaign. Insertions can be
adult GRPs during the year. moved around and the effects on performance viewed,
so that weekly targets can be achieved as efficiently as
Consequently the new ability to control weekly reach possible, while overall campaign objectives are met with
and GRPs for magazines as well as television, when improved effectiveness.
planning mixed-media campaigns, will reveal that total
campaign achievement will be improved by shifting DIMINISHING RETURNS TO REPETITION
more exposure (i.e. expenditure) into magazines.
The ability to plan magazine campaigns on a weekly
Billetts’ 160 advertiser clients accounted for 24% of all basis – the same as for television - is particularly fruitful
UK magazine advertising in 2004. All of these when one considers that many television campaigns
campaigns were planned by media agencies, and not reach the point of negligible marginal returns. The
Billetts whose role is independent auditing. When marginal money would be better spent in magazines,
Billetts sampled 50 of the magazine campaigns they and it is now possible to analyse such mixed-media
found that the average weekly delivery of ratings was strategies more realistically than before.
E
E
Andrew Roberts of the TNS Superpanel [133] all indicate agrees with his analysis and interpretation of the data,
that television advertisers often run bursts that are but his broad conclusions about effective frequency are
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
wastefully over-heavy, and some of the money would be supported by the findings of others, three of which are
better spent in other ways, such as magazines. This outlined now.
work is reviewed below.
RE-PRESENTATION OF COLIN MCDONALD’S DATA
At the heart of this are data suggesting that, in many
cases, one or two TV exposures per week are enough. Jones’s work led Colin McDonald to re-present in Jones’s
format the key data from his (McDonald’s) classic 1960s
NIELSEN DATA ANALYSED BY JOHN PHILIP JONES work into the short-term effects of advertising [131,
134, 135]. The result was the following diminishing
John Philip Jones, whose calculations of Short Term returns curve, clearly in general agreement with Jones’s
Advertising Strength (STAS) have been described earlier, findings:
extended his analysis to look at television STAS levels at
different numbers of exposures within a week. The
result is shown in the following graph. STAS Index
STAS Index
The first OTS has more effect than the second, after
which the impact of further exposures is negligible. (The
Jones wrote “The one thing that comes very clearly out dip for three exposures may be regarded as an artifact
of these analyses is that the first advertising exposure of small sample size.)
has much more effect than what is added by
subsequent exposures.” And again “The largest CARAT’S PENRITH PROJECT
immediate sales response generated by advertising
comes from the first exposure. Extra weight generates Carat Research conducted a controlled experiment in
very few additional sales. For short-term sales, heavy the Border television region, which included Penrith as a
Brand P
part of their television expenditure in some other way.
Branded Recognition Among Product Field Buyers
It is true that one option is to spend it on television in
those weeks that were not allocated any TV at all, thus
converting to a ‘drip’ rather than a ‘burst’ strategy. But
it would be more productive to switch some or all of the
‘excess’ TV-burst money into magazines, where the
great advantages of a mixed-media campaign (already
described) would be gained. The effectiveness of the
whole campaign would be enhanced.
saturation effect after only two exposures”. improved targeting: media continuity. For almost all
brands there are potential buyers in the market at all
This particular level of exposure will not be suitable in all times. Granted that a single exposure in the week
cases because different people are ‘affected’ at different before purchase can strongly influence which brand is
levels, according to the circumstances, but nevertheless purchased, and that second and subsequent exposures
this diminishing returns curve closely mirrors the shape in the same week are less effective, then in general it
of the Jones and McDonald curves. makes sense to extend the number of weeks of
advertising rather than pile on more repetition in the
ANDREW ROBERTS’ ANALYSIS OF SUPERPANEL same weeks. (There are exceptions of course, such as
launches.) No one knows which individual consumers
Taking advantage of the single-source nature of the TNS are ready to buy in a given week, so try to reach as many
Superpanel (described previously), Andrew Roberts of different consumers as possible in order to catch the
TNS reported on detailed analyses of 21 fmcg brands in ones who are ready to buy. A single exposure can work
eight markets, with the aim of looking at the short term because it is the latest in a series of brand messages
effects of television advertising [133]. For each brand it seen; it works this time because the consumer is now
was possible to find the relationship between the about to purchase something.
number of exposures to television advertising and the
subsequent level of purchases. The saturation level Magazines are an excellent means of delivering
could be calculated, where further advertising does not continuous exposure. The cost per rating point of
increase the propensity to buy the brand. Roberts magazine advertising is substantially lower than for
concluded that “virtually all the results for the television advertising; consequently using magazines
established brands show a convex curve, with saturation would extend the campaign period. Moreover a
E
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
If television and magazines are to be used together, how effective the television advertising was. It found
what proportion of the budget should go into that the higher the proportion spent in magazines, the
magazines? Five pieces of evidence suggest that at least more effective the television advertising was. This is
25%-30% should go into magazines. reinforcement for a conclusion reached earlier on
different grounds: that magazines make television
“MEASURING MAGAZINE EFFECTIVENESS” (MMA/MPA) advertising work harder. Spending less than 4% in
magazines is too little for this synergy to take place.
The MMA/MPA analysis [109, 110] already cited Even 4%-10% spent in magazines does not allow the
grouped brands according to their media mixes, and it synergy to take full effect. It was those brands which
was possible to compare the effectiveness of two spent 10%-61% in magazines which obtained the most
patterns. One was a group of brands which spent about benefit from the multiplier effect.
80% of their budget on television, 13% in magazines
and 7% on radio. The other group spent about 58% on
Television’s Own Effectiveness Increases
television, 35% in magazines and 7% in radio. With
When More Magazines Are Used
radio’s proportion the same in both groups, what was
the sales effect of spending 13% versus 35% in
magazines?
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
E
bottom third of adspend. The 30/30 synergisers’
average market share was nearly twice that of
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
brands using only print, or only TV, and nearly three
times the market share of brands using only radio.
The 30/30 policy works for small brands as well as
big ones.
If television and magazines are both being used, should level. Brands were grouped into three categories: those
they run in parallel or should they run at different times where magazines and TV did not overlap in time, those
in order to maximise the time-period which received with minimal overlap, and those with substantial
advertising? overlap. The results proved that the effectiveness of
magazine and TV advertising – individually and jointly –
Logically they should run in parallel, because only then rose the greater the degree of overlap in weekly
will be the creative content of the two media be able to scheduling.
interact and create communication synergy. Moreover
theory is supported by hard evidence on this point. (MMA’s measure of ‘effectiveness’ was defined earlier.)
The MMA/MPA analysis “Measuring Magazine It can also be noted that for all three degrees of overlap,
Effectiveness” [109, 110] cited previously analysed the magazines were more effective than television.
weekly flighting of magazines and television at brand
E
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
What is the best advertising strategy in an economic Based on the accumulated evidence, Barwise advocated
downturn? Professor Patrick Barwise of the London three positive strategies for coping in a recession:
Business School has published an extensive review of
the evidence on this [137]. He concluded that the most 1. “Look for new creative, targeting, or media
successful companies maximise long-term shareholder opportunities. In some contexts, the slower market
value by maintaining their advertising investment when conditions create new opportunities to emphasise
the economy slows down and weaker competitors cut different customer benefits or segments.
back. This enables them - at lower cost than when the 2. “Strengthen your market position against weaker
total market is growing - to build market share. A prime rivals. The research shows clearly that the strongest,
reason for this is that if competitors cut back, those who most successful firms can use the opportunity of an
maintain or increase their adspend achieve a higher economic slowdown to attack their weaker rivals.
'share of voice'. Any reduction in these firms' short-term 3. “Keep going. Arguably this is the best strategy of
financial performance is typically soon outweighed by all. It is based on the idea that long-term shareholder
their increased revenue and profit growth when value comes from excellent strategy executed
economic conditions improve. consistently over many years. The concerns about
recession - that customers may spend less on the
Barwise argued that, regardless of economic conditions, category, that short-term financial performance may be
every firm needs a clear strategy based on classic under pressure - are balanced by the advantages - that
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
marketing principles - including how much to invest in the same adspend gives a higher share of voice and that
advertising. These principles still apply when the the financial markets will support a long-term strategy if
economy slows down. The financial markets look for they find it credible.”
long-term shareholder value, not just short-term
financial performance. If a firm has a convincing More evidence that it pays to continue advertising
strategy it can keep investing in marketing even if the during an economic recession [138, 139] is given at
economy slows down, without a negative reaction from www.hmaw.net
shareholders.
E
A new feature of this fifth edition of ‘How Magazine which there was not room in the report. Some of
Advertising Works’ is that the report now has its own this is material removed from the fourth edition
website, www.hmaw.net which has been superceded by newer evidence but
which still has some add-on value.
The website has several purposes: • To present basic details of the methodology of
research studies quoted in this report.
• To present updates and new research published • To enable users to download a pdf file of the full
since this report went to print. report.
• To provide more in-depth findings about certain
surveys mentioned briefly in this report. In some Other related sources are PPA’s site at
cases this includes the facility to download reports www.ppamarketing.net and, for international evidence,
or brochures. FIPP’s website at www.fipp.com/research (whose
• To accommodate additional useful evidence for Research section I edit).
E
MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING
REFERENCES
(B) THE ADVERTISER RELATIONSHIP
43. ‘Facing the Press: new ways to make press advertising research more effective’, Wendy Gordon & Neil Swan,
paper at Market Research Society Conference, 1992
44. ‘Ad Track 94’, IPC Magazines, conducted by Millward Brown International, 1995.
45. Unpublished report by Gallup for International Thomson Publishing Ltd, cited in ‘Readership Research & the
Planning of Press Schedules’, Guy Consterdine, Gower Publishing Company Ltd, 1988, p168.
46. ‘DEMOS’, Timothy Joyce, Admap, June 1967.
47. ‘Magazine Dimensions, 2004’, compiled by Media Dynamics Inc, based on Burke, Gallup & Robinson, Starch
and other studies. Published in Magazine Publishers of America’s 2004 ‘Magazine Handbook’. Downloadable
from MPA’s website at www.magazine.org
48. ‘The Magazine Handbook, 1996/1997’, Magazine Publishers of America, 1996.
49. ‘Stop/watch’, by Patrick Hermie, Trui Lanckriet, Koen Lansloot & Stef Peeters, published by Medialogue (the
sales house of Sanoma Magazines Belgium), 2005. Visit www.medialogue.be
50. ‘Advertising Effectiveness: findings from empirical research’, G. Franzen, NTC Publications, 1994
51. ‘A Food Shopper is a Food Shopper is a Food Shopper?’, Reader’s Digest, 1995. The quoted speaker was
Richard C Anderson, Vice-Chairman, Lands End.
52. Speech by Christine Walker of Walker Media at PPA Conference, ‘Jumping On The Brand Wagon’, 8 May
2002.
53. ‘AIM (Ads In Magazines)’, SouthBank Publishing Group of IPC Magazines, conducted by SouthBank
Solutions/ NSM Research / Robert Quayle Research, 1997
54. ‘Today’s Fashionable Values’, SouthBank Publishing Group of IPC Magazines, conducted in-house, 1995.
55. ‘The Dynamics of Communication’, G+J of the UK, conducted by RSGB, 1989
56. ‘Parenting Magazines: The Essential Medium’, EMAP Elan, conducted by BMRB International, 1995.
57. ‘The Women’s Weekly Magazine Environment’, IPC Magazines Weeklies Group, conducted by Robert
Quayle, 1993
58. ‘The Presenter Effect, or Does the Medium Affect the Message?’, Alan Smith, Admap, February 1972. This
is also summarised in ‘Does the Medium Affect the Message?’, Alan Smith, paper at FIPP Workshop, Athens,
November 1994
59. ‘ROAR: Right Of Admission Reserved’, EMAP Consumer Magazines and others, 1996
60. ‘Levi Jeans - Communicating Effectively’, Roy Edmonson, paper at PPA Seminar ‘Effective Advertising... with
Magazines’, 21 September 1995
76. ‘52 Reasons Why Magazines Make Things Happen’, PPA, 1994.
77. ‘Standing Up To Be Counted’, Lisa Pollard, speech at Media Research Group Conference, Dublin, 1997.
78. ‘How Magazines Work’, edited by Christina Hartley, published by IPC Magazines, 1998
79. The IPA Advertising Effectiveness Data Bank. Available through www.warc.com
80. ‘Advertising Works ‘ series of biennial books, IPA, published by NTC Publications Ltd.
81. ‘Sales Scan’, Magazine Publishers of America, conducted by A C Nielsen, 1999
82. ‘Take A Fresh Look At Print’, Alan Smith for FIPP, 1999. Downloadable from FIPP’s website at www.fipp.com
83. ‘Take A Fresh Look At Print, second edition’, Alan Smith, for FIPP, 2002. Downloadable from FIPP’s website
at www.fipp.com
(D) CHANNEL PLANNING: POSITIONING MAGAZINES WITHIN THE TOTAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE
84. ‘At last – a breakthrough in measuring channel neutrality’, Sheila Byfield, presentation at Media Research
Group’s Conference, Madrid, 2004.
85. ‘You Talkin’ To Me?’, Chartered Institute of Marketing agenda paper, January 2004.
86. Hamish Pringle, in MediaWeek, 14-21 September 2004; 2004 data from private correspondence.
87. ‘IPA media neutral project – an update’, Lynne Robinson, presentation at Media Research Group’s
Conference, Madrid, 2004.
88 ‘Compose’, BMRB. Visit www.bmrb-compose.co.uk
89. ‘Leisure Interests Study’, conducted by Linda Jones & Partners for IPC Media, 2001
90. ‘MediaTime Study’, Vlerick Leuven, Gent Management School, 2002.
91. ‘Media Choices – A Multimedia Involvement Study’, conducted by Erdos & Morgan for Magazine Publishers
of America, 2000. Downloadable from MPA’s website at www.magazine.org
92. ‘Courting the Consumer’, Magazine Publishers of Australia, conducted by Lenehan Lynton Bloom Blaxland,
1995
93. ‘Media Experience Study 2004’, conducted by Veldkamp/TNS NIPO for Cebuco, 2004.
94. 'Online and print advertising', Ipsos-Insight and Faulkner Focus, 2004. Visit www.fipp.com/1511
95. ‘Digital Mag Subscribers Forward Ads, Link To Sponsor Sites’, MediaPost Daily, 6 April 2005
96. ‘Media Preferences of Digital Consumers’, VNU Global Media, 2004.
97. ‘The Customer Publishing Industry’, Mintel, prepared for APA, 2005. An executive summary is downloadable
from www.apa.co.uk
98. ‘APA Advantage Study’, Millward Brown, for APA and Royal Mail, March 2005. Visit www.apa.co.uk
99. ‘Consumer Attitudes To Customer Magazines’, Millward Brown, for APA and Royal Mail, 2003. Visit
REFERENCES
(E) MIXED-MEDIA ADVERTISING: EFFECTIVENESS OF COMBINING MAGAZINES & TV
112. BARB/TGI fusion, using KMR-SPC’s Mercury software.
113. ‘Multiplying the Media Effect’, Magazine Marketplace Group (under PPA), published by PPA, 1987
114. ‘The Media Multiplier’, consolidated research report written by Guy Consterdine on behalf of Press Research
Council, 1990
115. ‘The Multiplier Effect: TV + Print Improves Communication’, Rolf Speetzen, ESOMAR/FIPP Print Brands
Conference, Paris, January 2001.
116. FIPP (the International Federation of the Periodical Press) has published three compilations of studies: ‘The
Media Multiplier: Increasing Sales, Worldwide’,1991; ‘Take A Fresh Look At Print’, 1999; ‘Take A Fresh Look
At Print, Second Edition’, 2002. Many further recent studies are summarised in the research section of FIPP’s
website, www.fipp.com
117. ‘Knowledge is Power. Opportunities for Publishers from New Research Developments’, Alan Smith, paper at
FIPP Congress, Amsterdam, 1995
118. ‘Does Magazine Advertising Work, and How Can We Best Harness its Power?’, Andy Farr, Millward Brown,
Admap, December 1995
119. ‘Advertising Effect’, Magazine Publishers of America, conducted by Millward Brown, 1999. The report is
summarised on MPA's web site, www.magazine.org
120. ‘Proof of Performance’, speech by Graham Hawkey-Smith, Media Solutions Group, at PPA's Magazines '98
Conference, London.
121. ‘Kenco Mixed-Media Test’, IPC Magazines, 1996
122. ‘Co-operation Instead of Confrontation’, Bauer Publishing, paper at FIPP Research Seminar, London, 1993.
Also summarised in Appendix 3 in ‘Hearts & Minds Advertising’, Alan Smith, PPA Research Report No. 19,
1994
123. ‘When Ads Work: New Proof That Advertising Triggers Sales’, John Philip Jones, Lexington Books, 1995
124. ‘Does STAS Only Work With Television Advertising?’, paper by John Philip Jones, Syracuse University, 1998
125. ‘The Road To Accountability: If We Take It, They Will Follow’, Bob Warrens, J Walter Thompson (USA),
paper from Worldwide Readership Research Symposium 6, San Francisco, 1993. Also summarised in
Appendix 2 in ‘Hearts & Minds Advertising’, Alan Smith, PPA Research Report No. 19, 1994
126. ‘Readers and their magazines’, Kathi Love, presentation at FIPP Ad Sales Workshop, Amsterdam, 2003
127. ‘More Bang For Your buck’, John Billett, presentation given at PPA Conference, London, May 2005. The
Powerpoint slides may be downloaded from www.ppamarketing.net
128. ‘A Change of Plan: Fishing In Different Parts of the Pool’, John Philip Jones, at PPA Conference, May 2004.
INDEX
Arena, 27 Diagnostics Social & Market Research Ltd, 19
Armstrong-Cork, 43 Diminishing marginal returns, 96-98
Asda, 33 Direct Marketing Association, 48
Auto Express, 33 DEMOS, 36
Awareness Index: see Ad Track 'Don't Talk To Strangers - Quality of Reading Survey'
(Australia), 26
BARB, 62 'Dynamics of Communication', 41
BARB/TGI fused database, 80-82
Barwise, Prof Patrick, 104 Economist, The, 18, 22, 33
Bauer Publishing, 93 'Editor selection', 20
Behavioural Studies Ltd, 22 'Editorial Dynamics', 16, 44
BehaviourScan panels, 77 Edmonson, Roy, 45
Best, 16 Ehrenberg, Andrew, 77
Big Farm Weekly, 36 Elle, 17
EMAP Consumer Magazines, 18, 44, 45, 51
Billett, John / Billetts media auditors, 95-96 EMAP Apex, 9
Birds Eye Country Club vegetables, 83 Ephron, Erwin, 95
Bliss magazine, 21 Erdos & Morgan, 70
BMRB, 22, 36, 62 Esquire, 33, 47
Brand Equity Pyramid (Millward Brown), 75 Essentials, 41
Burke Research, 37
Byfield, Sheila, 61 Family Circle, 27-28, 41
Faulkner Focus, 73
CAA, 62 FHM, 17, 33
Cairns, Pat Roberts, 20 FIPP (International Federation of the Periodical Press),
Campbell's Soup, 35 59, 105
Candy Electrical Appliances, 55 Fisher, Dr Fleur, 18
Capital FM, 17 Ford Cougar car, 85-86
Carat UK, 97-98 Friends (TV programme), 17
Cebuco, 71 Future Foundation, 48
Chartered Institute of Marketing, 61 Gallup, 36, 37
Cheeses of England & Wales, 84 'Gardening Market Study', 9
'Magazine Advertising Effectiveness', PPA Report, 51, 53 Page EXposures - see PEX
Magazine MarketPlace Group, 83 Page traffic, 26
Magazine Publishers of America, 'Penrith Project', 97-98
13, 59, 70, 78, 87, 92, 100, 101, 103 'Perspectives of a Woman's Monthly Magazine', 22, 49
Magazine Publishers of Australia, 26, 70 PEX (Page EXposures), 29-30, 87
'Magazine Reader Experience Study', 13 'Planning For Consumer Change', 11
INDEX
Reader's Digest, 27-28, 37, 40 Tim Tam biscuits, 94
Redwood Publishing, 23 Time magazine, 22
Register-MEAL, 92 'Today's Fashionable Values', 41
Research Bureau Ltd, 27 TouchPoints, 62
Research Business, The, 17, 34, 47, 84 TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres),
Research Services Ltd (see also Ipsos-RSL), 15, 26 56-59, 62, 71, 77, 89, 91-93, 97-98, 101
Return on investment (ROI), 56, 58 TV Times, 17, 27-28
ROAR, 44-45
ROI, see Return on investment Uncovered (TV series), 17
Roberts, Andrew, 97-98
Roper Starch, 37 Vanity Fair, 17-18
Roy Morgan Research, 26 VDZ, 59
Royal Mail, 75-76 Veldkamp research agency, 71
RSGB, 16, 41 VNU Global Media, 74
RSMB, 62 Vogue, 16, 17, 23
Volkswagen Passat, 85
Sainsburys, 42
'Sales Scan', 59 Walker, Christine, 40
'Sales Uncovered', 56-58, 77, 78, 89-90, 96, 101 WCRS, 24
'Samples Research', 47 What's On TV, 17
Sampling Innovations consultancy, 47 Wire, The, research agency, 47
Sanoma Magazines, Belgium, 37 Wolff Olins, 17
Sarsons Pickling Vinegar, 85 Woman, 27-28
Saturday Evening Post, 94 Woman & Home, 41, 45
Sharwoods, 40 Woman's Weekly, 27-28
Shepherd, Nick, 93 'Women's Weekly Magazine Environment', 41-42
Shoot, 27 'Women & Magazines: The Medium & The Message',
Short Term Advertising Strength - see STAS 19, 23, 24, 40, 43
Simpsons, The, 17
Sky News, 17 'Youth Facts 4', 18, 45, 49, 51
Smith, Alan, 43, 59 'Youth Facts 5', 18
Somerfield, 33